


In The Children We Trust

by loveheartlover



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Nanny, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 21:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1703858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveheartlover/pseuds/loveheartlover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt is a nanny for the Prescott-Stewart family’s three children in NYC. Blaine is the nanny for the Prescott-Smith family’s two children in England. When the Prescotts have a big family reunion, Kurt and Blaine get taken along to keep their respective charges under control. They just never expected the little ones to start playing matchmaker.</p>
<p>Beta-ed by the lovely daltoneering, I have no idea what this fic would be without her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> The prologue is split between Kurt and Blaine, but each of the following chapters will follow one boy's POV.

_~Blaine~_  

Every morning, at 6:30am on the dot, Blaine would be woken up by a two year old climbing into bed with him. Tyler was nothing if not prompt. Blaine wasn’t entirely sure how he managed to time it so perfectly, but he’d ruled out an alarm clock (although he wouldn’t have put it past Alyssa), an ill-timed cockerel, or an outside light source. It appeared to just be one of those weird little habits Tyler had picked up.

If Blaine wasn’t already a morning person, two years as a nanny for little Tyler would have sufficiently trained him.

On this particular morning, Blaine was joined by both Tyler and his big sister-as well as a myriad of stuffed animals and several less comfortable toys. Blaine really needed to enforce a new policy about Lego in the bed.

“What are we up to today then?” He asked, grinning down at his young charges. It was largely a rhetorical question, Alyssa had to go to school so she didn’t get much say in the plans for the day, and Tyler didn’t know enough words to voice everything he would want to do. After a sufficient enough pause for the kids to feel as though they had somehow telepathically communicated their decisions to Blaine during the silence, Blaine clapped his hands together. “I was thinking some colouring this morning, Ty, and then after we pick Lyssie up from school we can go visit the ducks.”

“Ducks!” Tyler echoed, “Quack quack quack!”

Alyssa giggled. “You should have waited until after you picked me up to tell him that, Blaine. Now he’s going to quack all day!”

“You know something Lyss, I think you might be right. See, this is why you are the responsible one and I am the silly goofball. What would I do without you, oh wise and powerful little one?”

“I’m not little! I’m nine!”

“You only turned nine three weeks ago.”

“That doesn’t matter!”

Blaine raised a placating hand and shook his head. “Okay, fair enough. Come on then munchkins, I get the feeling I’m not getting back to sleep this morning. Since we’re up so early I bet Mummy is still in bed! Shall we make her some breakfast?”

“Egg,” Tyler said immediately, slipping out of the bed and running to the door. “Blainey egg!”

Alyssa and Blaine looked at one another, and Blaine winked at her conspiratorially. “Eggs it is, little man. Wait for me before you go down the stairs, you know the rules.”

Tyler disappeared into the hall, but Alyssa stayed put, her head dropping onto Blaine’s shoulder.

“You okay there?”

“Mhmm. Do I  _have_ to go to school today?”

“There are only two weeks left,” Blaine pointed out, “Then you get absolutely ages with Tyler and me. I thought you liked school anyway, you get to spend the whole day being positively doted on by Mrs Crealy. Did you finish your letter to Genevieve? We can post it on the walk over.”

“It’s in an envelope,” Alyssa said, “Mum said we could maybe meet up this summer.”

“I bet Genevieve doesn’t complain about having to go to school.”

“Of  _course_ she does, Blainey. Do you even remember being nine?” Alyssa asked. “Nine year olds  _hate_  school, it’s like, the law. Can I have a piggyback downstairs?”

“Tyler will be jealous.”

“Duh! That’s why I want one!” 

\----

Once Tyler had been put down for his nap at noon, Chloe called Blaine into her study. She normally kept the door tightly locked so Tyler couldn’t go inside and disturb her during the days she worked from home, so Blaine being summoned was a highly unusual occurrence. Maybe she was cross that he’d let the kids take her breakfast before school? He knew she had a big project deadline coming up, had their antics this morning kept her from getting an early start?

“How are they behaving today?” Chloe asked, not looking up from her laptop when Blaine walked in.

“Good as gold,” Blaine said, shifting nervously from foot to foot. “Have I done something wrong?”

“Not at all!” Chloe wheeled her chair from the desk so she was opposite Blaine. “Take a seat sweetie, you’re not in trouble. Thank you for bringing me breakfast this morning.”

“You’re welcome. I know you have to go into the office later, I thought you might like to see them in case you didn’t make it back for bedtime.”

“I appreciate it. You’ve been such a big help to me these last couple of years, and I’m afraid now I’m going to be asking for your help again. Do you remember we talked about Edward’s brother coming to stay with us while we’re in London next month? Eddie and I were hoping you might come along as well, to watch the children while the rest of us take care of some business. It’s just, I know you mentioned you might go see your brother-”

“Chloe,” Blaine cut in, “You know perfectly well that I would much rather spend summer with the kids.  _You’re_ the one who was trying to get me to leave and see Cooper!”

“I know, I just feel bad. I don’t want you to end up resenting us for keeping you from seeing your family.”

“I promise I won’t resent you. Cooper’s coming over for a couple of weeks in August anyway, I can see him then.”

“Well, that works out nicely! Now about this little trip. Obviously you’ll have your own room in the hotel, and you can keep Sundays off like normal, but are you happy to have Tyler and Alyssa in an adjoining room in case they wake up in the night? I’m just not sure when Eddie and I will be around, I’d hate for them to be unable to find anyone.”

Blaine nodded.

“Good. Now, how much do you remember about Eddie’s side of the family? Obviously you know Granny Ethel and Grandpa Cyril, they came to Alyssa’s birthday party just the other week. Ed’s brother is called Michael, and he has three children with his partner Oscar, there’s a photo of them all on the mantelpiece.”

“The one of them with the new baby? I remember, Alyssa writes to Genevieve. So will I be watching their kids as well as our two?” Blaine asked, frowning. He could handle Alyssa and Tyler. Alyssa and Tyler with two older kids and a baby, in a city they didn’t visit very often? That he wasn’t too sure about it.

“Oh no, no,” Chloe said, “Michael has a nanny too, Kurt, and he’s coming over to keep an eye on them. If he changes his mind, Edward and I can call in an extra pair of hands, don’t worry Blaine. We wouldn’t leave you to manage all five little ones. The last time Alyssa and Genevieve were together when they were five, they managed to trigger two fire alarms and get on a coach heading for Liverpool! It’s a good thing the driver was paying attention.”

She seemed to catch Blaine’s alarmed look and backtracked rapidly. “Oh, but I’m sure they’ll be well behaved this time around. They’re just a bit of a bad influence on each other, age will have mellowed them out. You and Kurt will manage just fine, I’m sure of it.”

 

* * *

 

_~Kurt~_  

Kurt should have known better than to turn his back on a newly crawling infant. Especially one with a love of all things shiny.

“Weewee knocked over my glitter!”

He didn’t get paid enough for this.

“Harry, what did we talk about?”

“You aren’t supposed to call Corina names, it isn’t good manners,” Genevieve cut in before Harry could reply, arms folded in a way that reminded Kurt just a little too much of himself.

Kurt sighed as he walked over to the coffee table, picking up a now very sparkly baby and balancing her on his hip as he began to pick up the various craft supplies that had been knocked over. “Thank you Gen, but I was asking your brother. Harry, apologise to Corina.”

“She doesn’t even know what I said!”

“One, that’s irrelevant. Two, you should always apologise when you say something mean. Three, if you  _don’t_ apologise you’re losing your TV privilege for the rest of the day, and four—”

“He’ll tell Daddy and then you’ll be in big big trouble!”

“Thank you Genevieve. Four, Harry, your baby sister is a bright girl. In another year or so not only will she recognise when you call her names, but she will begin to retaliate. And she has Gen for a role model.”

Harry froze, looking between Genevieve and Corina before scowling. “Fine. Sorry Corina.”

“Good boy. I’m sure we can salvage your picture, why don’t you go get a clean glue scraper while I give little miss a quick swill in the bath,” Kurt said, catching hold of Corina’s hand before she could put it into her mouth. Non-toxic or not, Kurt didn’t want to have to explain glitter puke to her parents.

He got the phone call warning him that Oscar was staying late at the office a little after four. While certainly not an unusual occurrence, Kurt much preferred the evenings on which he didn’t have to do the night-time routine with all three of the children. If Michael or Oscar were home, Kurt could offload Corina to one of them. When it was just him, he needed to somehow keep the older ones out of trouble while getting Corina bathed and fed and settled for the night, before beginning the whole thing again with Harry. It was a relief that Gen was old enough to get ready for bed herself.

Still, once the younger two were asleep and Genevieve was reading in her room, Kurt was free to spend the evenings as he pleased. Tonight, Kurt had some serious lists to make- he only had a month to decide what to take to England with him, which meant only four days that he wasn’t on childcare duty to get some shopping done.

It was time to plan.

 

 

 

 


	2. Arrival

Genevieve stood on tiptoe as they walked through the arrivals gate, searching desperately for her cousins. It didn’t take long for her to spot her aunt and uncle, and before Kurt or her fathers could make a grab for her she was gone, zipping through the crowd and flinging her arms around Edward’s waist. “Uncle Eddie!”

The man staggered a little before beaming down at his niece and swinging her up into a bear hug. “Well you’ve certainly grown, little one! What happened to the gaps in your teeth?”

“I grew new ones, it  _has_  been four years,” Genevieve said as he set her back on the floor, rolling her eyes.

Blaine blanched as Kurt reached the group, Harry holding tightly to one hand and Corina on his hip. “Oh god, you roll your eyes too?” Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow at Kurt, “I’m not sure we can handle two sassy nine year olds.”

“Kurt, this is Blaine, Alyssa’s nanny,” Genevieve announced, waving a hand between them grandly before linking arms with her cousin.

“My nanny!” Tyler said from where he was hiding behind Blaine. “Mine.”

“Hi there,” Kurt said, handing Corina to Michael while Harry wandered over to Oscar, and kneeling down to hold a hand out to Tyler. “You must be Alyssa’s little brother. She talks about you a lot in her letters to Gen.”

Tyler flinched away from the hand, burying his face in the backs of Blaine’s knees.

“He’s a little shy,” Blaine apologised. “Tyler, say hello to the nice man. We’re all going to be hanging out together so you’ll have to get used to him sooner or later.”

“Blaine first.”

Kurt stood back up and brushed himself down before grinning and taking Blaine’s proffered hand. They made a big show of shaking hands as Tyler peeked out at them.

“Hello there Kurt, I’m Blaine. I like your scarf.”

“It’s nice to meet you Blaine, I’m Kurt and I love that bowtie.”

They turned to kneel next to Tyler together, each taking one of the little boy’s hands. “Hello Tyler,” they chorused.

“I am very jealous of those shoes,” Kurt said.

“Have we met before somewhere?” Blaine asked, running a hand over an imaginary beard and then tickling up Tyler’s sides.

The toddler giggled. “Silly Blaine!”

Kurt watched the two of them play together, grinning at their antics, although when Blaine looked up from his tickle fight Kurt was quick to avert his eyes and distract himself by calling Harry over to meet his cousin- Tyler hadn’t been born the last time the Prescott-Stewarts were in England after all.

The trip back to the hotel was a blur of introductions and small talk- about the flights, the weather, the traffic in London. Kurt and Blaine wound up in the overflow car with Genevieve and Alyssa, the other car having the car seats and bigger storage that Chloe needed for her wheelchair, and they quickly discovered that they weren’t just dealing with sassy nine year olds as Blaine had feared. They were dealing with  _incredibly clever_ sassy girls. The two of them were speaking in some kind of secret code, and despite Kurt and Blaine’s best guesses -“Are they saying words backwards?” “It might be an anagram.” “Okay no I am positive that word was Spanish.” “Do you speak Spanish?” “Unfortunately not.”- they couldn’t manage to crack it in the forty minute ride to their hotel.

By the time they actually stepped into the lobby, Kurt was one whisper away from taking the next flight back to New York. Oscar and Michael had mentioned that the girls had invented their own language, but he’d never expected it to be so impenetrable to outside ears. What if they were planning a repeat of the Liverpool Coach Fiasco? What if they were planning something  _worse_? And even more worrying, from the amount of times the girls had looked in his and Blaine’s direction and started giggling, he was pretty certain whatever they’d been talking about was to do with them.

His thought track was interrupted as a yellow t-shirt masquerading as a toddler sprinted past him and barrelled into Blaine’s legs. “Blainey! Missed you!”

“Ty, I was gone less than an hour.”

“What about you Harry, did you miss me?” Kurt asked. The boy looked up from his dad’s phone, clearly unimpressed.

“No.”

“Miss Kurt too!” Tyler said, moving from Blaine to Kurt and trying to climb into his arms like a little monkey.

Blaine winked at Kurt. “So much for being shy, hey bud?”

The parents had been watching the exchange with amused expressions, and if Kurt or Blaine had looked away from the children they would have noticed the sly whispers and subtle bets being placed. It wasn’t until Edward clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention that they focused on their employers, and by then the notepad Chloe had written the bets in had been hidden from view.

“Right then, rooms. Prescott-Smiths are in the Cowper suite, Prescott-Stewarts are in the Pope suite, same floor but opposite sides of the lift. Each suite has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a sitting room. Kurt and Blaine, we’ve arranged for you both to take the weekend off as we’re taking the children with us to cousin Lucy’s party out of town. On your time off you’re welcome to use the pool and gym facilities.”

Harry handed his dad back his phone and hissed, “Kurt, we can share right?”

“Oh, so now I’m worth talking to, am I?”

“I don’t want to share with Genevieve or Rina!”

“Blainey an’ Ty’er share,” Tyler announced proudly.

“I’m not sharing with the baby!” Genevieve said, ears turning red. “Or Harry! Why can’t I have my  _own_ room?”

 Kurt could practically see the smoke coming off of her and was quick to intervene. “Gen, we have three rooms. Dad and Papa are in one. That leaves two rooms between the four of us, how would you split it?”

She paused, the evidence that the cogs in her brain were whirring at full speed written plain across her face. “There are six rooms all together. If Daddy and Papa are in one, and Aunty Chloe and Uncle Ed are in another, that’s four rooms between seven of us. Alyssa and I can share one room. Harry can share with Tyler, Corina can have her own room since she’s the noisy baby, and then you and Blaine can share.”

The adults laughed, but Genevieve looked determined. It was clear that she felt she’d made the optimum choice.

“If everyone is open to mixing up the suites,” Blaine said, “Then the four rooms between the seven of us would be better split with the two girls sharing, Tyler with me-”

“Harry alone and Corina in with me,” Kurt finished. “Unless you’re opposed to your own room Harry?”

“Are you kidding? That’s perfect!”

“In which case we may as well have the two older girls in the same suite as us, and then the youngest can stay with Blaine and Kurt in the other. We can just drop the girls in with you on our way out each morning,” Michael decided. “You can have the Pope suite. Everyone happy?”

A quick round of affirmations and Kurt was left in the lobby with Blaine while the children were rounded up by their parents and taken upstairs for a “quick chat”- a.k.a. a reminder that Kurt and Blaine were in charge and needed to be listened to at all times.

“So,” Blaine said. “Hi?”

Kurt laughed. “Hi. This is really weird isn’t it?”

“It really is. I mean,” Blaine paused as he picked up his luggage and motioned for Kurt to follow him to the lifts, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re here. After hearing what Lyssie and Genevieve are capable of I wouldn’t want to be alone with them for any length of time, but I’m not used to having to share responsibility of my kids.”

“Your kids?”

“You don’t call them your kids?”

“Not really. Michael and Oscar are their parents, I wouldn’t want them to think I was trying to take either of their places. I see a lot more of the children than they do, calling them my kids would make me feel like I was rubbing it in their faces.”

Blaine nodded thoughtfully. “I guess I can see why you’d worry about that. It was Chloe and Ed who started referring to them as my kids so it’s never been an issue for us.”

“I don’t think it’d be an issue,” Kurt said as they stepped into the elevator- lift, he corrected himself. “It’s just never come up as a thing.”

“Do you have many nannies around in New York? Reading doesn’t really have a lot. You have a few au pairs, but the vast majority of them are female and kind of club together, and then the actual nannies tend to be a bit older. It’s nice seeing someone more like me doing this job.”

Kurt shrugged as they stepped out of the lift, but neither of them made a move to go towards their rooms. “There’s a network of us, but like you said, most are female or older or both. How long have you been with the Smiths?”

“A little over two years. They hadn’t really planned on having another baby; Chloe’s business was just taking off when she got pregnant with Tyler and she was really eager to get back to work straight away, so they hired me when she was eight months. I got a month alone with Alyssa, and then all of a sudden there was this screaming newborn being thrust my way and a good luck as they went out the door one morning. It was one heck of a learning curve.”

“I had the same with Corina, she wasn’t really planned. I had already been there for two and a half years and they’d hired me because I was comfortable with older kids, so one morning they came downstairs, right?” Kurt said, finally following Blaine down the corridor. “And they’re both really pale and look like they’re about to throw up, and they tell me the woman who gave birth to Harry has just had another baby. Harry was almost two before he was adopted out, and this woman had been charged with child neglect and abuse-”

“That’s awful.”

“I know. Harry doesn’t remember most of it, thankfully. Social services immediately seized the new baby. She gave up the parenting rights without a fuss, so we don’t think she wanted the baby in the first place, and then they called Michael and Oscar.”

“Because they like to keep biological siblings together,” Blaine nodded.

“Exactly. They wanted to place this baby girl with them, and they said yes, but I had no experience with newborns. Neither of them could afford the time off work, so I had a choice. I could learn fast, or I could help them find a replacement and leave with a good reference.”

“And you chose to learn.”

“Of course I did. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Genevieve or Harry, I loved, still love, working for Michael and Oscar, and they offered to double my salary since newborns were a lot more work. I had two weeks of them alternating staying home to help me with Corina, and then I was on my own.”

They were stood outside the entrance to the Pope suite. Everything was silent inside, which meant the children must have been taken into the other suite with their parents. “I think that’s really admirable,” Blaine said quietly. “I’m glad the three of you managed to save Harry and Corina from that place.”

Kurt felt his cheeks heat as he opened the door to the suite. “I didn’t really do anything, it was all Michael and Oscar,” he said, before swiftly changing the subject. “Any idea why the suites have such weird names?”

“I guess the hotel went with a theme. William Cowper and Alexander Pope were both 18th century poets. You know the phrase God moves in mysterious ways? Well that comes from one of Cowper’s poems.”

Kurt stared at Blaine, but before he could query Blaine’s knowledge of poetry, the door opened again and the Prescotts poured into the room.

It wasn’t until much later that evening that Kurt got the chance to reflect on his companion for the trip. After dinner in the restaurant with the family, there had been an hour long assembly job of Corina’s crib- brought by the Prescott-Smiths from their home in Reading to save the Prescott-Stewarts the job of wrestling a travel cot onto a plane, the crib having belonged to Tyler. It should really have only taken a few minutes, and instead involved five grown men swearing profusely at the pieces that would simply not fit together while Chloe and the children watched television in the sitting room. The crib issue was only resolved when Chloe, fed up of having to turn the volume on the TV up to disguise the language coming from Kurt’s room, wheeled into the bedroom and gave strict orders that had the entire thing assembled in under five minutes.

By 11pm though, the children were asleep in their respective rooms. Blaine and Tyler had turned in early for the night, and Harry had fallen asleep while playing a very complex game with his dinosaur toys, not stirring when Kurt carried him into his room and settled him for the night. Kurt lay in bed with Corina curled up in his arms, the baby only half-awake as she finished off her night feed. He stared at the wall that kept his room separate from Blaine’s, and he wondered.

When he had been told there would be another nanny, he had been expecting someone… different. Snobby or standoffish, maybe. A man who wanted to show off his own skills at wrangling children, and would have no respect for Kurt. Instead he was faced with a man who could name 18th century poets off the top of his head. Who was happy to share a room with a toddler, and had spent dinner that evening teaching Alyssa and Genevieve a new rhyme for their clapping games. Who spent an hour before retiring to his bed drawing pictures of dinosaurs for Harry to colour in the next time he got bored at a meal, but only after checking with Kurt that it was okay because he didn’t want to tread on any toes.

Blaine had so much respect for Kurt that it felt like every other word coming out of Blaine’s mouth as a compliment. He had done nothing but build Kurt up since they had met, and Kurt wasn’t sure where to go with that. If Blaine was just being friendly, or if there was a hint of flirting behind it.

It didn’t matter either way, Kurt decided as he laid a freshly burped and changed baby into her crib. He couldn’t get a crush on the Prescott-Smith’s nanny. It would be unprofessional.

No matter how adorable his accent might be. 


	3. Rhyme and Reason

When Edward announced over breakfast that Genevieve, Alyssa, and Harry would be joining the adults on a tour of the local art galleries and museums, Blaine immediately began to make plans. Kurt had never been to London before, but Blaine had visited enough times with the family, and twice to see his friend Artie who studied at Royal Holloway, to have a general idea of things they could do with the little ones.

He waited until they were back in the suite, Kurt holding Harry down as Blaine smeared suncream on every limb not being aimed at his face- “I’m going to be inside! I don’t need it!”- while the girls tried to teach Tyler a few dance steps.

“So I was thinking,” Blaine puffed, ducking to avoid a foot Harry had wriggled free, “That we could take them to this singing group at the community centre down the road. I took Tyler the last time we were here and he loved it.”

“Works for me  _-Harry, stop kicking-_ but will Corina be - _I mean it Harry, do that again and you lose a toy-_ too young?”

“They’re a baby and toddler group, so she should be fine.” Blaine sat back on his heels and wiped the excess suncream up his forearms. “Go on then Harry, you’re good to go.”

They watched as Harry raced over to the bag of toys he’d brought with him, dragging them into the safety of his room in case Kurt decided to follow through on the threat.

“Thanks for the help,” Kurt said. “Normally I’d say he isn’t this much of a drama queen, but he really is. He’ll give Genevieve a run for her money in a couple of years..”

“I don’t envy you that job.”

Kurt snorted. “Yeah, you and your mild-mannered little minions can all have a good laugh as I run myself ragged trying to get Harry and Gen to behave themselves. I just hope Corina keeps her sweet nature.”

“Oh believe me, Lyssie has her moments.”

“But not Tyler?”

On cue, Tyler tripped over his own feet as he tried to copy the girls’ grapevine. For a moment his face crumpled, but he blinked away any tears and was up and going straight back to the routine before either of them could make a move to help him. Blaine shook his head.

“No, not Tyler. Not yet, anyway, maybe a week with his cousins will corrupt him.”

Blaine grinned when Kurt elbowed him. “I don’t appreciate the insinuation that it’s my lot who are the bad influence, Mister, no matter how true it might be.”

Chloe wheeled in before Blaine could come up with a retort, which was just as well as he had a feeling that “I’ll show you just how bad an influence someone can be” wouldn’t be very professional. The girls skipped over to her, each equipped with a backpack full of cereal bars and juice cartons that Blaine had packed.

“Where’s Harry?”

“Hiding in dinosaur mountain, no doubt,” Kurt said, getting to his feet. “I’ll grab him.”

As Kurt vanished into Harry’s room, Chloe raised an eyebrow at Blaine. He blushed. “Not a word.”

“Oh sweetie, I’m not saying anything. Have you two got anything planned for the morning?”

“We’re going to take the babies to a music group not far from here, and then maybe to lunch depending on when you’re back with the older ones and need us again.”

“‘m not a baby!” Tyler protested. Blaine picked him up, blowing a raspberry against his neck to make him giggle.

“We should be back around three,” Chloe said, “But we’ll take Corina and Tyler off your hands for the rest of the day. Since we aren’t around at all tomorrow, we want to spend time with all of the kids doing some proper family bonding. You and Kurt could spend a little time together maybe, a candlelit dinner and a walk along the river-”

“Chloe, it’s not like that,” Blaine muttered.

“B’aine, you’re all red!” Tyler pressed his hands against Blaine’s cheeks. “Like Peppa Pig!”

“Well, I’m sure the two of you can think of something to do in your free time.”

“We have free time?” Kurt asked as he deposited Harry next to his sister, pulling a hat out of his back pocket and jamming it onto the boy’s head.

“From 3 onwards, since you have the kids all day tomorrow. Have you two decided what you’re doing with them?”

Blaine and Kurt looked at one another and then shrugged. “Zoo, maybe?” Kurt said. “It’ll depend on whether it stays this sunny.”

“Well I’m sure the kids will love it no matter what. Come on then, let’s get this show on the road. Tyler, can I have a kiss goodbye?”

Blaine handed Tyler over to his mother, who peppered his face with kisses until he was begging Blaine to take him back, and then the room was quiet once more as Chloe and the older children left.

The silence was broken by crying coming from Kurt’s room.

“And so the princess awoke,” Blaine said, and the bad line was worth it for the way Kurt’s face lit up as he went to collect Corina.

“Blainey?”

“Yes, Tyler?”

“Kurt pretty. An’ Blaine pretty too. You coul’ be pretty together.”

Blaine laughed, shrugged, distracted Tyler with a game of I Spy, and resolutely did not think about just how  _pretty_ Kurt was. He’d done the long distance thing before, and it hadn’t worked out. There was no point getting attached to someone who’d be gone in a few days’ time.

“What time is this singing group?” Kurt shouted from the bedroom.

“Eleven, so we should leave in the next thirty minutes.”

Blaine sat on the sofa with Tyler on his lap, turning on cBeebies so Tyler could watch his favourite person- Mr Tumble. The [episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw1-8cOXcYs) was about baby animals, and after having his cardigan tugged repeatedly- “Blainey, a Tumble! A Tumble!”- as Tyler got more and more excited, Blaine found himself sucked into the show alongside the toddler. 

He was so absorbed in learning some of the signs that at first it didn’t really register when Kurt walked back into the sitting room and took a seat beside him. It took Corina sucking his sleeve into her mouth for him to snap back. Kurt looked amused.

“Enjoying yourself?” Kurt asked as he unhooked Corina’s single tooth from the thin material. “Sorry, she’s teething.”

“Kurt a’shush!”

Kurt bowed his head, and once Tyler was satisfied that he had been suitably chastened, he returned his attention to the screen.

“What animal is that Tyler?” 

“A sheep! Baaa.”

“Clever boy. It’s a baby sheep, so we call it a lamb,” Blaine told him, directing Tyler’s attention back to the screen. “Can you sign lamb?”

Tyler furrowed his brow as he copied the movements Justin was making, before turning to Blaine and repeating them. “Lamb!”

Kurt looked impressed. “What’s this called?”

“Something Special. I’m guessing you don’t have it State side?”

“No, but I wish we did. It looks a lot more interesting than some of the mindless nonsense that’s on these days.”

“I’d withhold that judgement until you’ve seen the nightmare that is Peppa Pig,” Blaine advised.

“Blainey! Kurt! A’shush!”

“Sorry Tyler,” they chorused. Blaine left Tyler with Kurt and Corina as he began to pack ready for their morning out, filling the changing bag with rice cakes and baby wipes before beginning the hunt for Tyler’s favourite toy rabbit BeeBee. They wouldn’t get very far without it.

He was halfway under the glass coffee table stretching for the toy when he heard Tyler say, “Kurt, Ree-na, touch a’nose.”

“Is it time to send the spotty bag back to Mr Tumble?” Blaine asked. Tyler climbed onto the table and grinned down at him through the glass.

“A’nose. Touch a’nose!”

“That’s right.” Blaine inched back out from under the table and handed Tyler the rabbit. “We take our fingers, and touch our noses.” Tyler and Kurt both copied him, while Corina sucked on the fingers of Kurt’s other hand. “Then we blink three times, and-”

“I’goes!”

“Off it goes, good job Tyler! Did Mr Tumble get the bag?”

Tyler span around, scrunching up his nose as he stared at the screen before turning back to them, nodding enthusiastically. Kurt smiled.

“Well now that we know Mr Tumble got his bag back, I think it’s time we got our own bags and left, don’t you?”

Blaine held out Corina’s sling, helping Kurt fasten the straps around his chest. “Kurt’s right Ty, it’s time for us to go. We’re going to do some singing!”

“Baby Ree-na?”

“Corina too. Now hop to it polk-a-dot, we need to find your shoes!”

“Shoes,” Tyler repeated, staring down at his toes as though he expected them to magically appear on his feet. “Blainey, no shoes?”

Blaine put his hands on his hips. “No shoes? Have you checked in the bedroom?”

Tyler ran off, dragging BeeBee across the ground behind him by his ears.

“I’m going to have to try and find that show online,” Kurt said, hooking Corina’s legs through the holes in the sling. “Maybe we have an equivalent with ASL instead of BSL, I’ve never thought to look.”

“Looks like Ty managed to convert you and Corina to Tumble fans as well, huh?”

“A Tumble?” Tyler asked, bobbing up from seemingly nowhere and tugging on Blaine’s jeans.

“Oh no, we’re not watching Mr Tumble again. Maybe Mummy and Daddy will let you watch an episode later. We’re going singing, remember? Did you find your shoes?”

“Shoes!” Tyler held out a pair of bright blue sandals.

“They match your shirt,” Kurt said, gesturing at the Thomas the Tank Engine t-shirt Tyler had picked out that morning.

“Match.” Tyler looked between his feet and the sandals, before staring at Kurt. “Help?”

“Kurt needs to put his own shoes on, but if you come here I’ll help you.”

Tyler sighed but obediently trudged over to Blaine, sitting on the floor with Beebee on his lap. Blaine mock-glared at Kurt. “You’ve replaced me as his favourite!”

“I can’t help it if Tyler has as good a taste in men as he does fashion,” Kurt teased, hopping awkwardly on one foot as he tried to get his boots on without dislodging Corina from the sling.

“Baby green!”

It took a further ten minutes of mopping up baby sick and arranging bags onto shoulders (and another hunt for Beebee after Tyler took his eyes off the rabbit for two seconds and proceeded to forget where he had put her), but finally they were out of the door and walking down the road towards the community centre.

“So how many of these songs am I actually going to know?” Kurt asked. Tyler was walking between the two men, holding tightly onto both of their hands and chattering away to Corina. Blaine couldn’t make out most of what he was saying, a lot of gibberish interspersed with the odd word or phrase, but he seemed happy enough to keep talking to the baby while BeeBee was tucked into the crook of Blaine’s elbow, out of harm’s way. Blaine’s attention kept being drawn to Kurt’s free hand straying to Corina’s chest every few moments.

“I have no idea, they have a kind of rota so it depends on who is leading the group and what time of year it is. They’re really easy to learn though. If you get stuck just copy the actions and fuss over Corina instead, you’ll pick it up.”

“You have a lot more faith in me than I do.”

“Well one of us has to,” Blaine said, reaching over to catch hold of Kurt’s wrist. “What are you doing?”

“I- sorry.” Kurt’s eyes had darkened, so Blaine let the subject go. It wasn’t his place to start questioning him, after all.

The community centre was easy to spot- if the giant banner across the door announcing the singing group wasn’t obvious enough, there was a stream of women with babies strapped to their backs or chests, or a toddler clutched close to hand walking through the door. There were three women greeting them, and Blaine couldn’t help but compare them to the Halliwell sisters from Charmed- they had a striking resemblance to Prue, Piper, and Phoebe. As Kurt and Blaine approached, their eyes lit up.

“Hello boys! Are you here for the music group?”

“Singing!”

“You’re going to be singing?” Piper ruffled Tyler’s hair. “That’s fantastic news little guy, we need lots of singers for the group to work, so you and your family are very welcome. First time?”

“My first time,” Kurt said, “Blaine comes when he’s in the city.”

“How lovely. It’s all new songs today so everyone is in the same boat,” Prue said, tickling Corina under the chin. “We have another gay couple with us today so-”

“Oh no, we’re just-”

“I mean we’re-”

“We’re just the nannies,” Blaine explained.

“I did think you were a little young to have such gorgeous children. Go on through, we’ll be starting in five. There’s tea for the adults and juice for the little ones. If you ask really nicely, your nannies might even let you have a biscuit,” said the Piper lookalike, grinning at Tyler.

“Biccie! Blainey, biccie?”

“Well now you’ve done it. Come on then Ty, let’s go find you a biscuit.”

 Kurt seemed to flourish in the music group. The Halliwell sisters introduced themselves as Jackie, Monica, and Sarah, and once the adults had formed a circle and got their children sat down, the music began. Tyler had gone shy almost as soon as Monica picked the guitar up, burying his face in Blaine’s shirt and refusing to be moved, but Corina squealed along with the music, bouncing up and down on Kurt’s lap. She particularly loved [When I Was One](http://loveheartlover.tumblr.com/post/81124078382/when-i-was-one-piccolo-music), chuckling whenever Kurt tickled her tummy or helped her to balance on her chubby legs and bounce around.

Despite Kurt’s initial fears about not being able to learn the songs, Blaine found they both only had to resort to humming a handful of times. Kurt had a really beautiful voice, although when he first began to sing he had ducked his head and peered at Blaine out of the corners of his eyes, as though he expected Blaine to comment. Blaine had smiled at him instead, and Kurt had flushed pink, the colour highlighting the freckles across his cheeks.

Tyler finally came out of his shell during [Stomping Dinosaurs](http://loveheartlover.tumblr.com/post/80200320536/stomping-dinosaurs-piccolo-music-consider-this), dragging Blaine up so they could stamp back and forth.  He growled and giggled and wiggled, unable to sing along but happy to encourage Kurt and Blaine to sing for him.

“Okay everyone, it’s time for our last song,” Sarah said. “Let’s all cuddle up with our babies ready for a nice slow song to finish the session off.”

Blaine let Tyler pull him down so they were lying side by side on the floor, surprised when he sat straight back up to pull Kurt down as well. They wound up rolling onto their sides so they were facing one another, Tyler and Corina curled up between them. Blaine snuck glances at Kurt whenever the other man wasn’t looking, admiring the line of Kurt’s jaw and the toned smoothness of his arms. Blaine was allowed to admire a handsome man, after all, even if nothing could come of it. They lay together for the duration of the [song](http://loveheartlover.tumblr.com/post/78595255405/lavenders-blue-sung-by-piccolo-music), and as they moved to get back up they realised that both Corina and Tyler had fallen asleep, Corina’s tiny fist nestled in Tyler’s hand.

After snapping a quick photo on each of their phones, they gently separated the sleeping children. Kurt didn’t bother trying to fit Corina back into the sling, instead folding it into the changing bag and carrying Corina in his arms. Blaine held Tyler in a similar fashion, and after bidding the group goodbye, they took the children back to the hotel.

Initially the boys had planned to go to a café for lunch, but with three hours to kill, Kurt had reasoned as they walked back, they may as well just pick up some supplies and have lunch in the hotel suite. Once the infants had woken up, Tyler and Blaine ate sandwiches and grapes, while Kurt tried to coax Corina to suck on sticks of cucumber and carrot between mouthfuls of his own food. Blaine had been in charge of weaning Tyler, and had had no trouble in getting the little boy to eat the baby food he made for him, but Corina, Kurt explained, had point blank refused to sample any and all mush. Instead they were just giving her chunks of adult food to play with and letting her continue to get her nourishment from the formula. Watching the battle Kurt was fighting with the little girl over trying new foods, Blaine had never been more glad that Tyler wasn’t much of a fussy eater.

At three o’clock on the dot, Michael poked his head around the door. Kurt was asleep on the sofa, Tyler making BeeBee dance up and down Kurt’s stomach, as Blaine danced around the sitting room with Corina. “How are we doing in here?”

“Not bad, are we baby?” Blaine said, kissing Corina’s forehead. “Do you want to go say hi to your daddy?”

“Hello cutie. Did you have fun with Blaine and Kurt today?”

“We went to a music group, and they had their lunch a little after one,” Blaine said. “They’ve both been on their absolute best behaviour.”

“Well that  _is_ good news. Looks like you wore poor Kurt out!”

Corina giggled.

“Tyler, why don’t you bring your rabbit and come see your Mummy and Daddy? Your sister missed seeing you today.”

“‘kay,” Tyler said, running over to Michael. “Bye B’aine!”

“I’m pleased to see how much my absence wounds you,” Blaine teased. “I’ll see you later Ty, be good.”

“Good!”

Kurt awoke as the door closed, jolting upright. “Where are the kids?”

Blaine couldn’t help but laugh, taking in Kurt’s bedhead. “Michael took them.  _We_ have an afternoon off, anything you’d like to do?”

“I would kill for a decent cup of coffee right now,” Kurt admitted. “The hotel stuff is just too weak for people who have to deal with babies crying in the middle of the night.”

“Well luckily for you, I found a quiet little place that does amazing coffee the last time I was here. It’s only a twenty minute walk.”

“I’d follow you to the very ends of the Earth if it meant coffee. Let me get changed first though, it’s not often I get to show off my nicer clothes. My normal fashion sense isn’t exactly child friendly.”

 “I wish I could say the same, but I have to admit I was wearing the bright colours and bowties long before I started working as a nanny.”

“I’m glad,” Kurt said, making Blaine blush a little under the intensity of his gaze as his eyes swept over his outfit. “They suit you.”

“Yes, well. Meet back here in ten?”

“It’s a date.”


	4. "Date"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mention of a baby being resuscitated

Every time Kurt thought he had things under control, life liked to throw a spanner in the works. He was doing okay in school, and his dad had a heart attack. He killed his NYADA audition, and then didn’t get in. He got a great new job as a nanny, and his dad had cancer.

It built up and it built up, and things had settled down enough for Kurt to think, no, okay, I’m good. Yes, there were a lot of kid related emergencies- Harry had broken his arm twice because he thought mattress surfing down the stairs was a fun way to travel (Kurt should never have let him watch The Princess Diaries 2), and Genevieve once managed to stab herself in the foot with a knife after she offered to help Oscar cook dinner- but that came with the job. Life had stopped screwing Kurt over.

And then came Blaine Anderson.

Dorky yet dapper, with his  _accent_ and his  _bowties_ and how he completely wasn’t Kurt’s type except for how inexplicably he was and it just wasn’t fair. The one guy Kurt had met who he could actually see himself dating lived on another continent.  What kind of a joke was that?

Blaine took him to a café, a cutesy place full of plush leather furniture and a big fireplace. Kurt wondered if they were inspired by the Gryffindor Common Room when designing it, it had that sort of vibe. He can see why Blaine hadn’t suggested coming here with the children, five seconds in this place and they would have been escorted out with strict orders never to return.

They sat in the far corner near the fireplace, in cosy armchairs with a low coffee table between them. There weren’t that many people inside, but given how many side streets Blaine had led Kurt down in order for them to get here, that wasn’t surprising. It made it feel more special somehow. More  _romantic_ , maybe.

Only romance wasn’t, couldn’t be, on the cards.

That didn’t mean Kurt couldn’t make an effort though. He hadn’t brought that many clothes outside of his child-approved staples- jeans and hoodies and simple shirts, nothing designer or expensive because nine times out of ten they wound up covered in paint or baby sick- but there was a new pair of jeans (a gift from Rachel for his birthday a few months ago) that he hadn’t had an occasion to wear yet. Add a nice shirt, a waistcoat, and a few carefully selected accessories, and Kurt felt a little more like Kurt the Person as opposed to Kurt the Nanny. Blaine had certainly seemed appreciative when they’d reconvened in the sitting room.

Sat in the chair though, armed with a plate of white chocolate and raspberry muffins and a mug of mocha, it was difficult to remember why flirting with Blaine was a bad idea.

Blaine looked up at Kurt from under his eyelashes, smiling sweetly. “So,” he said.

“So,” Kurt echoed, and they laughed. “This is a little weird.”

“It’s only as weird as we choose to make it,” Blaine pointed out. “We have a few hours to kill, may as well enjoy them.”

Kurt was never a big subscriber to the “point out the awkward and it goes away” theory, but Blaine was an easy conversation partner and gradually the awkwardness did indeed fade from mind. They talked about their families, their friends, school. Blaine tried to explain the complex nature of his family, with his Irish mother and English father. The fact that he grew up in Ireland and moved to England for the nannying job at least explained his [accent](http://www.dialectsarchive.com/ireland-11). Blaine was sympathetic when Kurt mentioned his father’s health problems, and Kurt was left in stitches at Blaine’s impression of his half-brother, to the point where one of the staff had to come over and gently ask them to quieten down a little as they were disturbing the other customers.

Both blushed, but the distraction helped Kurt cool down a little. He leant back in his chair, wondering when exactly he and Blaine had gotten so close together.

“You didn’t go to university then?” Blaine asked.

Kurt shook his head. “I didn’t get into the college I was aiming for, but my friend Rachel convinced me to move to New York anyway. I was going to try and get an internship, but I wanted to be able to pay rent, and one of Rachel’s dads mentioned that a friend of his needed a nanny. A few interviews later and I had the job, moved out of the apartment- Rach was pissed at first, but a couple of our other friends made a last minute move to the city so she had new roommates to distract her- and here I am.”

“What did you want to intern for?”

“Fashion. It’s part of the reason I agreed to work for Michael, once I found out he helped run the company. He’s offered me a job,” Kurt says, smiling down at his mug, “After the kids are older, if I still want to work for him. He’s seen some of my designs.”

“That’s amazing, no wonder you stayed on after Corina arrived.”

Kurt shrugged. “What about you? You’re what, twenty? Shouldn’t you be in college?”

“Well I would be, if I knew what I wanted to study. Cooper keeps nagging me to fly out to Los Angeles and give acting a shot, but I like music more.” Blaine bit down on the corner of his thumb, agitated, but dropped his hand when he caught Kurt staring, smile back in place. “I got the job with Chloe and Ed while I was working out what I wanted to do with my life, but I’m still pretty clueless and I don’t really want to leave anyway.”

“You do have really great voice,” Kurt said thoughtfully. “Why aren’t you doing something with music?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Blaine’s tone was sharper, bitter. It was clear Kurt had hit a sore point.

They were silent for a moment, observing one another, and then Blaine’s frown softened, turned into something more questioning. “I wanted to ask,” he began, and Kurt knew immediately what he was going to say. “About earlier, with Corina?”

“You want to know why I kept checking her breathing.”

“Yes. I mean, you obviously don’t have to tell me if you’re uncomfortable and maybe it’s just me being nosy and you can just tell me to mind my own business and I won’t be offended or anything I swear it just seems like you-”

“Blaine,” Kurt cut in, laughing. “Slow down, take a breath. I’m not offended, I’m just trying to work out how to word this without sounding too crazy.”

Blaine started to say something, but Kurt raised a hand and he closed his mouth, nodded.

“When Corina was very young,” Kurt began, “I used to sleep on a mattress next to her because I was so scared she’d stop breathing and I wouldn’t notice. I kind of thought I was just being paranoid, and then one day I woke up- and I don’t know why I woke up, I just had this feeling something wasn’t right- and I looked over and her face was turning blue.”

“Kurt,” Blaine said softly. It sounded like the word was little more than an exhale of breath, and when Blaine rested a hand on top of Kurt’s, Kurt gave him a shaky smile.

“She’d stopped breathing. Michael and Oscar were out for the night, it was just me and the kids. I’d taken this baby first aid course when we first got Corina, so I knew how to do CPR, but I needed to call an ambulance and I couldn’t do that while trying to resuscitate her. I had to er,” Kurt closed his eyes, bit down hard on his lip. “I had to shout for Genevieve, get her to call 911. She was so scared, but she’s brave and she knew what to do. After that it’s all kind of a blur. She survived, the doctors said she was going to be okay and gave us a breathing monitor to use for a couple of months, and here we are. I just can’t get the image of her lying there, not moving, out of my head. Even on my days off, I have her sleep in the same bed as me. I mean, some people say you shouldn’t but others says it’s okay, and I know I won’t roll and crush her because ever since that night I seem to be hotwired to wake up if she so much as snuffles.”

Blaine left his chair and sat beside Kurt, pulling him into a tight hug. “I can’t even begin to imagine what I’d do if that happened to Tyler or Lyssie, you were so brave.”

“No I wasn’t,” Kurt laughed bitterly, blinking back tears because  _now is not the time at all thank you brain_ , “I was so scared.”

“You saved her life.”

Kurt just shook his head. He couldn’t explain it to Blaine, hadn’t been able to explain to anyone, how responsible he felt for that night. He couldn’t have done any more to help her, wasn’t the reason she stopped breathing, and he knew that, he did, but it didn’t stop the twinge of guilt, the fear that wrenched his gut every time he looked over at that baby and couldn’t see her chest rising and falling.

They stayed there for what feels like hours, but could only be minutes, Kurt’s head on Blaine’s chest, listening to the steady  _thump thump thump_ of his heart. The moment was lost when Blaine’s phone began to ring, the opening lines of Bohemian Rhapsody echoing around the room. Kurt began to giggle, wiping his eyes and raising an eyebrow at Blaine, who blushed.

“Shut up,” he said, even though Kurt hadn’t said anything at all, frowning a little at the screen. “Hello?”

Kurt could only hear one side of the conversation, but it didn’t take a genius to decipher what was going on. Tyler was having a tantrum, and Ed was calling for back up.

Blaine hung up, and they exchanged wry smiles. “I thought Tyler was the good one?” Kurt teased.

“Oh he is! Until he has to have his hair washed. Michael and Oscar are busy trying to get Harry to have a bath so they can’t help, and Chloe is with the girls, so they need another pair of hands. I’m off to go wrestle a naked toddler, are you staying or-”

“I’m pretty sure naked toddlers are very slippery when wet. You’re going to need back up.”

Blaine grinned, that easy open smile that made Kurt’s whole body feel warm, and linked hands with Kurt as they walked back towards the hotel.

Operation Not Fall In Love With Blaine was officially a miserable fail.


	5. Girls Will Be Girls

Blaine had his suspicions about Genevieve and Alyssa.

Their secretiveness had been notched up to the point that their room had become completely off limits to both Kurt and Blaine. While their parents and siblings were allowed to enter if they asked nicely, the nannies were under strict orders not to go anywhere near their door- which would have been fine if Blaine hadn’t been put in charge of rallying them for the trip to the zoo.

Nobody had been in the best of moods that morning.

The adults rushed out in the early hours to get to… well, wherever it was they were going. Corina had had a bad night, so Kurt was exhausted after being up with her. He claimed he’d managed to fit in a couple of hours of sleep, but Blaine was fairly certain he was lying to try and make Blaine feel better. Genevieve and Alyssa were forced to share a room with Harry once the adults left, the girls not trusted to be alone in their suite, and they were being very vocal in their displeasure at being treated like babies, while Harry was in a strop about being woken up before the sun had risen.

"I don’t see why we had to share a room with Harry, he’s as much of a baby as Corina or Tyler," Genevieve scowled, flicking bits of cereal bar at her little brother.

"Let us get the little ones ready and then you can go get dressed in the suite by yourselves," Blaine promised, rubbing a hand across his forehead. "But right now I really need everyone here so I can keep an eye on you."

Tyler was the one causing the real problems. He was in a foul mood because he’d had to have his hair washed the night before, and he had been put in time out for biting Blaine as he tried to escape, and  _then_  he’d had one of his special stars taken away for kicking Kurt as he tried to escape a second time. Blaine felt particularly bad about that, and every time he saw Kurt he’d launched into a new set of apologies, even though Kurt kept insisting that it was fine, it came with the territory, he’d received a lot worse from Genevieve over the years. Blaine couldn’t help feeling guilty though- Tyler never behaved this badly, and although Blaine knew it was just the change of scenery and the presence of his cousins getting him over excited, he still felt bad for Kurt getting dragged into the mess.

Each little thing was slowly wearing on Blaine’s patience, until finally he snapped. He prided himself on being a calm, patient, understanding person, but Tyler had been overwhelmingly clingy since getting into trouble, and then he’d stripped his nappy off during the night and wet the bed so Blaine had had to wrestle with bed sheets and damp clothing at god knows what hour in the morning, and with the kids all complaining before 7am everything was steadily building up.

The final straw was Tyler spilling his orange juice on the carpet. It was very obviously an accident, but Blaine had yelled anyway. Blaine had  _never_  had to raise his voice at the kids before. Heck, he hadn’t technically needed to raise his voice then, all he’d done was make Tyler cry and run and hide in Harry’s room. Nothing productive came of it.

Kurt swept into the room with Corina in his arms just as Tyler ran out. It didn’t take a genius to work out what was going on, and with a sigh and a click of his tongue he had Alyssa and Genevieve ushering Harry into his bedroom so they could all keep an eye on Tyler.

"Bathroom, you need to cool down for a second," Kurt said.

It didn’t take much. The door had barely closed behind him before Blaine was near tears, fists clenched by his side. “I am a horrible person.”

“Oh sweetie,” Kurt cooed, “You are not a horrible person. I shout at Gen and Harry all the time, they both have their volume turned up to full so often that it’s the only way to make a point.”

“But I yelled at Tyler. He’s never going to forgive me, I am a vile human being and I should be sacked for being such a mean-”

“Blaine. You aren’t mean or vile, or anything else. You kept your temper far better than I could have, and Tyler will forget all about it in five minutes. Just put an episode of Something Special on and he’ll be too busy gabbling about Mr Tumble to have the energy to be cross with you.”

“Using my own nannying techniques against me, I see how it is,” Blaine sniffed. He mustn’t have looked convinced, because Kurt sighed and handed Corina to him while he straightened Blaine’s bowtie, before pointing at the door. “Go give Tyler a cuddle. Tell him you’re sorry for shouting at him, you know he didn’t mean to spill the juice, and then we’ll get everyone together and dressed and ready to go to the zoo.”

“You’re right. You’re right, no, I should just go and say sorry, and it’ll be fine. Thanks,” Blaine replied, pressing a kiss to Corina’s head and giving her back to Kurt, rubbing his eyes briefly before walking out to see Tyler. If he’d turned, he might have noticed the sweet, if slightly exasperated, smile on Kurt’s face.

Tyler forgave Blaine before he’d even opened his mouth to say sorry, flinging himself at Blaine’s knees and howling “I sorry Blainey, I sorry.” While Blaine calmed Tyler down, he sent the girls to get dressed in their suite, but after twenty minutes had passed without their return Kurt sent Blaine to fetch them while he tried to jam hats on to the heads of the youngest members of the family.

Blaine wondered if it was normal to be terrified of little girls.

“Hey Lyssie? Gen? You ready to go?” he called, knocking on the door.

“State your name and business!” Genevieve shouted. Blaine could hear Alyssa giggling in the background.

“My name is Blaine Anderson, and I am here to collect my young charge Lady Alyssa and her esteemed cousin Mademoiselle Genevieve for a day of excitement and adventure at the zoo. Can I come in?”

Alyssa opened the door a crack, peering out at her nanny. “Nope. It’s Princess Alyssa today, Blaine.”

“My apologies, Princess,” Blaine said, bowing.

Alyssa giggled again, biting her lip and glancing back into the room before opening the door fully. “You can’t tell Kurt anything.”

“Yeah, you’d ruin the whole thing,” Genevieve said, ushering him inside quickly.

“Ruin what thi-” Blaine fell silent as he took in the wall between Alyssa and Genevieve’s beds. Tacked onto the paint were photos of himself, joined to photos of Kurt with lengths of string. Alongside the photos were leaflets, cut outs from tween magazines, and large sheets of paper covered in writing. “What’s all this?” he asked warily.

“You and Kurt are going to get married,” Genevieve said matter-of-factly, “So we’re just helping you along a little bit.”

“Gen we only met-”

“A couple of days ago, we know. But we’ve been planning this for  _years_ Blaine, ever since we were certain you were both gay.”

“Two people being of the same sexuality does not mean you can just-”

“Don’t bother Blaine, we  _know_ you have a crush on him.”

“I don’t have a crush!”

“Blaine.”

“Genevieve!”

Alyssa neatly stepped between the two, hands on her hips. “Stop it, we don’t have time for this. Blaine, you keep on being in denial all you want, but it’s kind of obvious to everyone. Even Daddy can tell, and Mummy says he wouldn’t know a crush if Athena came down from the sky and whacked him on the head with a giant pogo stick.”

“Did your Mom really say that?” Genevieve asked.

“Well not word for word, but it’s the same basic principle!” Alyssa said, throwing her hands into the air. Blaine made a note to cut down on the number of times she was allowed to watch Atlantis in a row, she was getting a little too on point with her Milo Thatch gestures. “Anyway, like Gen said, we’ve been planning this forever. You guys are like, secret twins or something, only better because you aren’t related so you can legally date and get married and have cute little musical babies that Gen and I can dress up.”

“Everyone agrees with us! Not just Aunt Chloe and Uncle Eddie, my daddies said you and Kurt would be a cute couple! I don’t think I was s’posed to hear that though,” Genevieve paused, looking thoughtful for a moment, before shrugging. “Oh well, they shouldn’t have talked so loud if they didn’t want us to hear. And Harry thinks you’re like, super cool-”

“And Tyler loves Kurt-”

“And Corina’s too little to have an opinion but as her big sister I know that she likes you too. So you and Kurt are going to get married, and then we’ll all just live together in a big big house, and Daddy and Papa and Uncle Eddie and Aunt Chloe can all do their grown up stuff, and you and Kurt can nanny all of us together!”

Blaine wondered when would be a good time to point out the sheer logistic impossibility of what the girls were suggesting. They were both staring up at him, faces flushed with excitement at having finally gotten to tell one of the parties involved in their rather remarkable plans- Blaine could never get Alyssa this focused when it came to things like schoolwork.

“Let’s get moving,” Blaine eventually said, the silence in the room starting to weigh down just a little too heavy. “We really don’t have time for this today.”

The girls followed him back to his suite, where Kurt would doubtless be full of questions as to why it took them so long. “Hey, hold on a sec,” Blaine said, kneeling in front of them outside the door. “Listen, this is important. I need this to stop. No more matchmaking. No more planning. No more Mission Impossible stuff. Kurt and I have a perfectly happy working friendship, and I don’t want him to be uncomfortable just because you two got this silly idea into your heads. I’m pleased you were so dedicated, but Kurt is stressed enough, what with being in a foreign country with a baby who doesn’t believe in sleep and all.”

“We won’t say anything to Kurt, we aren’t _stupid_ ,” Alyssa said.

“Yeah,” Genevieve added, “Besides, a confession of true love would sound pathetic coming from one of us, it’ll mean much if you just tell him yourself.”

Blaine had never really understood why people used the phrase  _facepalmed_  until that exact moment.

“Just get inside the room.”


	6. The Zoo

They had barely walked through the entrance to the zoo before Tyler was loudly demanding to see “Mingu”. Blaine looked up from where he was adjusting the straps on Tyler’s stroller, shrugging at Kurt. “He means the penguins. But we already had this conversation, didn’t we Ty? Harry gets to pick where we go first today.”

“Yes!” Harry shouted, pumping his fist into the air. “We’re going to see the monkeys!”

Kurt hooked Corina’s diaper bag over the back of the stroller, before turning to the older children, letting Corina suck on his fingers from her place in the baby sling. “What are the rules for today guys?”

“We stick together and take it in turns to pick where we go,” Alyssa said.

“And we have to be good and keep our wristbands on, because they have your and Blaine’s cell numbers on. If we get lost, we have to keep as a group and find a member of staff and ask them for help,” Genevieve added.

Kurt smiled and gestured at the path ahead. “Go on then, Blaine and I are going to be right behind you. I want the two of you to keep an eye on Harry at all times, you know what he’s like for wandering off Gen.”

The children were a few feet ahead as Kurt and Blaine walked behind them, Tyler falling silent in his stroller as he looked around eagerly at all the animals, most of which he didn’t have words for yet. Corina fidgeted in the sling, her sucking on Kurt’s fingers getting more insistent until he was forced to withdraw them with a sharp “ouch!” after the edge of her very first baby tooth caught on the fleshy tip. Blaine glanced over at the noise and smiled.

“Is her dummy in the buggy somewhere?”

“Her pacifier,” Kurt corrected, “Is in the bag on the stroller.”

Blaine dutifully dug through the bag until he removed it, slipping the nipple into Corina’s mouth. “No more snacking on Kurt’s fingers, baby girl,” he warned, “Here’s your  _dummy_.”

“I will not have you anglicise my youngest charge, so stop it.”

“I’m not anglicising anything, I’m merely offering her the chance to expand upon her culture. Her daddy Michael  _was_ born an Englishman, after all.”

“Don’t you start as well. Being around Michael has already made me pick up on little sayings that have my friends in stitches… or confused, actually. I don’t understand how the same basic language can be so different between countries.”

“Neither do I,” Blaine admitted, handing Tyler a rice cake. “Whenever I see Coop we end up sparring over the correct meaning of fanny, rubber… although he delights in the versatility of UK English in regards to words meaning ‘to get drunk’.”

“Example?”

“Bladdered, wellied, pissed, buggered, trollied, stickered… essentially any noun in the English language could be used, just chuck an ‘ed’ on the end and we’re away!”

“And you say we’re the weirdos,” Kurt muttered under his breath, making Blaine laugh.

“Are you two going to stand over there gabbing the whole day? Come on, we want to take a picture!” Alyssa shouted, waving them over to where the children were stood. Genevieve’s arm was linked through Alyssa’s like always, but tucked into Gen’s side was Harry, his head tipped back as he laughed, eyes scrunched shut. Their hands were tangled together.

Kurt tilted his head as he watched the two of them. He’d never known the siblings to stand that close without one of them attempting to murder the other. It was nice, seeing them let go of their rivalry to just enjoy their day out together.

How long the truce would last was up for debate, but for now Kurt was happy to snap a handful of photos of all three children stood before the enclosure, cheeks flushed and eyes bright.

Corina caught hold of the camera bag strap, waving her prize in the air- and slapping Kurt in the face with the bag in the process.

“You know,” he sighed, “I can’t wait until you’re old enough to know better than to hit the guy who controls your food supply.”

“Kurt!” Genevieve called, “We found a monkey with hair just like yours!”

“Or maybe not,” Kurt said, adjusting the baby sling. “You keep being little and cute and incapable of comparing me to a monkey.”

Tyler wriggled frantically, struggling with the straps on his stroller. “B’aine! Walk!”

Blaine obediently knelt down and began helping Tyler get out. “I swear you had this exact exchange with her yesterday. If Ty’s walking you can put Corina in the buggy while I push, save yourself from carrying her everywhere. He’ll probably listen to you more than me anyway.”

“I’ve told Corina all about my hopes for her every day since she was born, because every day Gen and Harry manage to remind me why I’d like her to stay the age she is.”

“We heard that! We’re way better than Rina-Nina stinky pants!”

“Harry, what have we said about calling her names?”

Harry blew a raspberry in Kurt’s direction before returning to staring into the enclosure.

“Free!” Tyler shrieked, scrambling to stand beside Kurt with a beaming grin. “Kurt a’ Rina.”

“Is it okay if Rina goes in your stroller? Then you can walk with me, and we’ll see if we can find Mingu.”

“Hey, Tyler come here, come see the Kurt monkey!”

Tyler ran over to join his sister, wrapping his arms around Alyssa’s hips with a squeal. Blaine and Kurt shrugged at one another, before Kurt settled Corina into the stroller, stuffing the sling into the already overflowing diaper bag. “I guess that’s as good a yes as we’re going to get, hey baby girl? Now be good for Blaine, he’s saving my back. I can’t be your super amazing nanny if I have a bad back, right?”

“No, Nanny Kurt, you can’t,” Blaine whispered in Kurt’s ear, making him scream in surprise. Corina’s face crumpled at the loud noise, tears flooding her cheeks.

“What are you  _doing_?!” Kurt hissed, “How did you even sneak up on me, oh my god. You are such a brat, you’re worse than the kids. Oh Rina honey-”

“I’ve got it, go see if you can shift the kids along before they spot any other monkeys with a likeness to you. We can’t take dead children back to their parents, we’d never work again.”

“Well, we could try.”

Kurt took one more photo of the children together, before motioning to a sign a few feet away. “Okay let’s move on little monsters. We can double back and go through the reptile house and aquarium, or we can go on and look at some tigers.”

“Mingu?”

“Mingu later, munchkin. See the map? The penguins are right next to the exit. We can do a circuit and see them at the end.”

“I want to see the tigers,” Harry said.

“Well  _we_ want to go see the snakes,” Genevieve said, “Don’t we Lyss?”

Alyssa didn’t look convinced by either option, but she gave a tight nod anyway. Kurt frowned, glancing at Blaine for back up, but he was busy making a teddy bear dance to try and get Corina to stop crying.  _Well_ , Kurt thought,  _Guess this one is mine to take care of._

“We’ll go back to the reptile house and then forward to the tigers,” he announced, “Since Harry decided to see the monkeys first.” Genevieve and Harry cheered and ran back towards the reptile house, but Kurt caught hold of Alyssa’s hand before she could follow. “Walk with me?”

Alyssa shrugged, ducking her head bashfully. Blaine seemed to have caught on to what was going on, as he called over, “Tyler, can you come help me push the buggy?”

Kurt waited until Tyler had run over to Blaine and the two of them had followed behind Genevieve and Harry with Corina, before smiling at Alyssa. “How are you handling being with Gen all the time? I know she can be a bit of handful, forget to let other people make choices sometimes.”

“It’s okay. She makes fun choices.”

“Like the reptile house?”

Alyssa’s face fell. She looked around anxiously, as though she expected Genevieve to appear from the shadows and yell traitor at her, before whispering, “I don’t like snakes.”

Kurt smiled. “Want to know a secret? I don’t either. They absolutely terrify me.”

“They do?” Alyssa asked, eyes wide. “I thought grown-ups weren’t afraid of anything.”

Kurt winced at the very notion of being considered a grown-up. “Well we are. We just have to be good at hiding it so we can keep the children we’re responsible for safe. Now I know for a fact that Genevieve gets bored stiff looking at fish, so how about we let Blaine take care of everyone who wants to go to the reptile house while we go wander around the aquarium for a few minutes?”

“I’d like that. Fish are really pretty.”

Once Blaine had been caught up on the plan, Kurt led Alyssa down to the Aquarium. They walked together in the oddly quiet room, occasionally stopping to point out a particularly interesting looking fish, Alyssa still holding onto to Kurt’s hand.

“Hey, Kurt?”

“Mmm?”

“What else are you afraid of?”

“Well that depends.”

“On?”

“Whether or not you’re getting intel for Genevieve so she can make my life miserable when we go back to New York.”

 Alyssa giggled. “I’m not, I promise. I’m just curious. Look!” She linked her free hand’s pinky finger with Kurt’s. “See, I pinky promise that I am not asking for Genevieve. I won’t tell her.”

Kurt pretended to think it over for a minute before grinning. “Okay, I guess if you pinky swear I’ll have to believe you. I’m scared of snakes, and wasps, and standing inside things made only of glass that go really high-”

“You wouldn’t like the London Eye then.”

“It’d be my worst nightmare. Um, I’m not that big a fan of hospitals, and I am absolutely terrified of anything happening to Corina. I mean, I worry about Gen and Harry, but Corina’s so young and helpless that it goes to a whole other level.”

“I worry about Tyler,” Alyssa admitted. “He’s so little, and he’s my only brother. Sometimes I get mad at him because he takes away lots of attention, and he can be a bit annoying, but I love him too. And I worry about Blaine.”

“About Blaine?”

“Yes. He’s lonely. He doesn’t say it, but I know he is, because he’s away from his family and they don’t really get on very much anyway, and his friends are all busy so he doesn’t see them very often. Sometimes when we play he gets this really faraway look and then he seems sad and cuddles me and Tyler extra tightly.”

“You’re a very observant girl, you know that?”

“Blaine says I’m emotionally intelligent. I always used to think he said it to make me feel better, because I’m not very good sometimes at school stuff, but now I know he was just being honest. That’s why I like him, and you.”

“Because we’re honest?”

Alyssa shrugged. “Grown-ups usually dumb things down, or they fib or leave things out when they say stuff. You and Blaine don’t do that. Last week Blaine was studying a book on neuroscience and he explained to me how thoughts and actions are produced in the brain through neurons firing. He even told me about action potentials, and how different chemical channels are opened and closed to make them fire! Most grown-ups would have just said that the brain did it all and left it at that.”

“Blaine is a very remarkable person,” Kurt said.

 “Yes. I think he needs a boyfriend, then he wouldn’t be lonely.”

 Kurt just smiled, and the two of them exchanged sympathetic nods before Alyssa skipped ahead to the exit. She turned as she skipped, calling over her shoulder, “Genevieve worries about you too, you know.”

 Despite Kurt’s questioning, Alyssa refused to confess anything further, instead linking arms with Genevieve when she escaped from the reptile house and pulling Harry into the chain. The three of them flew ahead of the group as they made their way to the tigers, singing “We’re off to see the  _tigers,_ the wonderful tigers of the zoo!” as they went. Tyler walked alongside Kurt happily for a while, but by the time they’d visited the meerkats, lions, camels, and been across to visit the peacocks, giraffes, and a handful of other animals, he was dragging his feet and whining. Corina had woken from her nap and begun to fuss too.

“I think it’s time we stopped for a lunch break,” Kurt decided as they left the otter enclosure, having just watched the animals being fed.

 “Lunch lunch lunch,” Harry chanted. “I want fries and a milkshake and a giant chocolate cake!”

 “Not going to happen little man,” Blaine laughed. “I know for a fact that your dads are just as insistent about a healthy lifestyle as your aunt and uncle. We have cheese sandwiches and apple slices, but if you’re good we’ll get some ice cream from the cafe. If you’re  _really_ good, there’s a milkshake place next to the exit that makes milkshakes from chocolate bars.”

 Harry seemed to take Blaine at his word, sitting cross-legged with his back perfectly straight as he daintily ate his lunch, clearly willing to do anything that would get him a milkshake.

Blaine spent most of the meal coaxing Tyler to eat up his apple, while Kurt gave Corina a bottle and kept an eye on Genevieve and Alyssa a few feet away. The girls were eating together, but whispering conspiratorially, occasionally shooting looks in Kurt and Blaine’s direction.

Kurt couldn’t hold Corina and feed her while also feeding himself, and eventually Blaine seemed to realise that Kurt’s lunch was going uneaten. “Tell me if this is too weird,” he said, before breaking Kurt’s sandwich up and feeding him a bite.

Slowly Kurt shook his head. “It’s not too weird. Thanks.”

 Blaine smiled, and gradually Kurt’s plate emptied as he was fed bits and pieces. It was a strangely intimate act, all things considered. Every so often he’d accidentally nip one of Blaine’s fingers and blush, apologising through a mouthful of apple even as Blaine swore it wasn’t a big deal. Once or twice Kurt could have sworn Blaine deliberately traced a finger over his lower lip as he drew his hand away, but he tried not to dwell on those thoughts.

 _I’ll be gone by the end of the week_ , he reminded himself. There was just no point in getting too attached.

Kurt heard a click after one such lip tracing incident, and turned his head in time to catch Genevieve lowering the camera around her neck.

She at least had the decency to look a little sheepish.

Throughout their afternoon at the zoo, Genevieve seemed to get a little braver in snapping photos, not bothering to hide when she took a photo of Kurt and Blaine holding Corina and Tyler up so they could see the parrots. Sometimes she’d even demand that they posed together for a photo. Kurt and Blaine indulged her, raising their eyebrows at one another and sighing dramatically whenever they were begged for another photo, but secretly Kurt rather enjoyed getting to stand so close to Blaine, resting a hand on his hip or shoulder as they smiled benignly at the camera.

At their very last enclosure of the day- Tyler’s beloved “Mingus”- it was Alyssa who made them stand together for a final photo. Harry had been successfully silenced with a chocolate milkshake, and Genevieve and Alyssa were sharing another, so the group was subdued for a change.

“Okay, this our last photo so you two do something cute,” Alyssa ordered as she raised the camera.

Kurt had Tyler on his right hip, and Blaine had Corina on his left, so they could stand pressed side to side without the children getting squashed. At the very last second Kurt felt Blaine shift, and it was as the flash on Alyssa’s camera went off that Blaine pressed a kiss to Kurt’s cheek. The resulting photo, that the men immediately demanded to see, peering down at the tiny display on Alyssa’s camera, was of Kurt’s surprised but pleased face as Blaine kissed him, Blaine’s cheeks pink at his own boldness.

“Very cute,” Alyssa said approvingly.

As they led the children around the gift shop, Blaine fidgeted awkwardly beside Kurt.

“What is it Blaine?”

“I’m sorry, for the photo. I shouldn’t have-”

“No, really it’s fine, I didn’t-”

“I was completely out of line, I should have asked-”

“Blaine, it’s  _fine_ ,” Kurt insisted, before motioning over to where Tyler was staring awe-struck at a pile of penguin toys. “Now go save Tyler before his little head explodes.”

Tyler sensed their staring and turned to face them, eyes wide. “Mingu,” he breathed.

They laughed, and it was only after Kurt had been handed Corina and Blaine had rounded up the children to pay for their chosen items that Kurt realised someone else had been watching them this whole time.

“Hey,” a voice said from behind him, deep and flirty.

“Hi,” Kurt replied, turning to face the stranger.

“I’m Adam.”

“Kurt.”

Was it normal, Kurt wondered, for strangers to initiate conversation here? The only people that normally tried were older women who wanted to coo over Corina.

“Is she yours?”

“No, I’m her nanny.”

“And the guy? Your boyfriend?”

“Boyfr- Oh, you mean Blaine? No, he’s a nanny too. We joined forces for the week.”

“How sweet. You have a really interesting accent, American?”

Kurt nodded. “Yeah. Look, I need to go and help Blaine with-”

“Sure, sure. Listen, I’m not sure how long you’re here for, but this is my number,” Adam said. “If you wanted to get dinner tomorrow night, or have a tour of the city from a native, just give me a call. I’d really love to take you out sometime before you go.”

Kurt blushed, but took the piece of paper Adam was holding, giving him a shy smile. He’d never gotten used to being hit on. “I should be free tomorrow night. Eight, maybe?”

“I’ll text you the name of the restaurant. If you get lost just give me a call and I’ll come meet you.”

“Okay. I’ll see you soon then, Adam.”

“See you, Kurt.”

It couldn’t hurt, Kurt decided. A night away to take his mind off of Blaine, to get whatever this was out of his system. Yet even as he took the bags Harry and Genevieve were holding and hooked them over the back of the stroller, a feeling of unease swept over him.

Did he really  _want_ to get past his crush on Blaine?

 

 


	7. A Night In

Blaine liked to consider himself a fairly decent nanny.

He could placate howling babies, entertain toddlers, just about hold his own against bad-tempered eight to ten year olds, and still enjoy his job at least ninety percent of the time. The ten percent he didn’t enjoy could be boiled down to the occasional injury, the general lack of sleep, and the thing he hated the absolute most- sick children.

After Kurt had shyly asked over breakfast that morning whether Blaine could handle the kids for the night while he went on a date, the whole day had been spent trying to wear Tyler and Harry out. They’d gone to the park, played more games of Tag and Stuck In The Mud than Blaine could keep track of, and been on the longest walk around London that a two year old could physically manage (and then some, as they’d retired Tyler to the buggy and kept going for another hour in the vague hope that by dinner time the children would be too exhausted to do more than watch a few movies).  Alyssa and Genevieve had been unusually subdued since breakfast, throwing the odd glare in Kurt’s direction when he wasn’t looking that had Blaine threatening them with a series of violent and untoward hand gestures behind Kurt’s back.  When he’d pinned them down for an explanation after lunch, Genevieve had snapped that “Kurt’s totally ruining all of our plans!” before swanning off to her room with Alyssa close behind.

Which was why he was highly suspicious when both girls came into his bedroom as he changed Tyler, with matching pale faces and sad expressions.

“We’re sick,” Alyssa said, coughing loudly, “Really sick.”

“You seemed fine an hour ago.”

“It must have been something we ate for dinner, we’ve got food poisoning.”

“Food poisoning doesn’t make you cough, Lyss.”

For a moment Alyssa’s composure slipped and she looked annoyed, before the mask was back in place. “Flu then. We’re  _really_ sick.”

“Of course you are,” Blaine said. “If you’re sick then it’s an early night, which makes things much easier for me if Kurt’s out tonight.”

The girls slunk out of the room, but Blaine didn’t have time to try and decipher what they were planning as Tyler began to cry, holding his arms up. “B’aine, up!”

“Hey, what’s wrong little guy?”

“Hurt!” Tyler sobbed, rubbing his hands over his stomach before letting Blaine pick him up.

“Is everything okay?” Kurt asked, sticking his head around the door. “We’re not building up to another tantrum, right?”

“Hurt,” Tyler repeated.

Blaine and Kurt exchanged worried looks, before Blaine helped Tyler stand on the end of the bed, pressing a hand to the boy’s abdomen. “Where does it hurt?”

Tyler didn’t reply, just cried harder until Blaine was convinced he had appendicitis and was dying and was trying to remember where the nearest hospital was. The parents were gone for the night, at a dinner party out of town, so there was nobody aside from Kurt to help him out and he was about to be left alone.

Kurt at least had a little more sense when it came to situations like ill children, handing Corina over to Blaine and then kneeling down beside the bed, pressing a hand over Tyler’s stomach. “Where does it hurt, Ty? Here?”

Tyler nodded.

“On one side or all over? Does anywhere else hurt? Can you point?”

Shaky fingers catalogued Tyler’s head, throat, and stomach.

Kurt bit his lip. “Harry was complaining that he felt sick earlier,” he said quietly to Blaine, “I thought he was just playing up.”

“Genevieve and Alyssa were in here just a minute ago saying they were sick, I figured they were just messing around. You think they might have been telling the truth?”

“I could imagine Gen and Lyss lying for attention, maybe even getting Harry in on it, but Tyler? Does he ever pretend to be sick?”

Blaine shook his head. “So we have four potentially ill children?”

“Looks like it. Tyler sweetie, stop crying now, we’ll make you feel better. Come on, we’ll get everyone in their pyjamas and in one bedroom, have a movie night.”

Tyler beamed and jumped down from the bed, running into the living room, but Blaine caught hold of Kurt’s wrist. “Your date is in an hour, you need to-”

“I’ll call and cancel, I’m not leaving you here with a bunch of sick kids. Gen and Harry are awful patients, they had flu a month ago and were absolutely vile to be around. I just hope Corina doesn’t come down with it too, I don’t know what we’ll do with a sick baby.”

“I thought you were looking forward to seeing that guy?”

“Blaine,” Kurt said firmly, “I’m staying here with you and the children. Adam was some random stranger who approached me out of the blue, for all I know this is saving me from being murdered. If I was that excited, I would have spent the whole day talking your ear off about him and begging for your opinion about my outfit.”

“You’re sure?”

Kurt rolled his eyes and held out his hands for Corina. “Go tell Alyssa and Gen to get their pyjamas and any toys or books they want from their room. They can watch TV with Harry while we give Tyler and Rina a bath, and then we can move into my room. The bed there should be about big enough for everyone.”

Once the girls and Harry were settled in front of the television with biscuits and The Little Mermaid, Blaine led a sticky-fingered Tyler into the bathroom.

The bath was run, and Kurt was singing to Corina as he undressed her, blowing raspberries on her belly to make her giggle.

Tyler immediately ran over to the changing mat and knelt beside the baby, trying to copy what Kurt was doing. “Ree-na laugh!”

“You’re making her laugh, Ty? Good job. Now let’s get those clothes off buster, it’s bath time.”

Tyler’s hands flew to his head as he stared at Blaine in horror. “Hair?”

“No baby,” Blaine laughed, “No hair wash tonight, just a quick dunk in the tub with Rina before we go join your sister and cousins.”

“Bath a’Ree-na?”

“Yup, you’re going to share with Rina, but no splashing! She won’t like getting water in her eyes.”

Tyler nodded solemnly. Or at least, as solemnly as a two year old could nod. Blaine waited until Tyler was safely in the bath, and Kurt had Corina sat up in the water, before he pulled Tyler’s favourite [bath toy](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fisher-Winnie-Splash-Bubble-Treehouse/dp/B00000J17V) out and fastened it to the tiles above the bath tub, grinning at Tyler’s delighted expression. The boy immediately began to play with Tigger, encouraging him to slide down and into the bath water. Each time the toy hit the water, Tyler shouted “splash!” and shrieked with laughter. At first Corina’s face crumpled, clearly not a fan of the loud noises, but Kurt distracted her with songs until finally she joined in Tyler’s laughs, her tiny fists beating against the water to try and copy her cousin.

“You called Adam?” Blaine asked quietly.

Kurt nodded. “Yeah, he was pretty nice about it. Said if I changed my mind, or wanted to see him another night, I should just give him a call.”

“Sounds like a nice guy.”

Kurt rubbed baby soap into Corina’s skin, gnawing on his lower lip before shyly murmuring, “He’s not the only one.”

The men quickly lost track of time as they played with the children, alternating between sensibly bathing them and encouraging their games.

“Um, Kurt? Blaine? You’ve been in there for like, ages. What are you doing?” Genevieve asked, poking her head around the bathroom door… and causing Kurt and Blaine to freeze where they were leaning over the bath tub, clutching Winnie the Pooh and Piglet respectively and acting out a very intense scene to the hysterical giggling of Tyler and Corina.

“We’ll be right there,” Blaine said quickly, but the damage was done. Genevieve sniggered.

“Oh take your time, when you two  _adults_ are ready to come act your ages-”

“Watch your tone,” Kurt warned. “Go get changed into your pyjamas, and tell Harry and Alyssa to do the same. We’ll be in shortly.”

“If you don’t get distracted by toys for  _toddlers_ first.”

Blaine stood and shooed the girl back into the main room. “Goodbye, Genevieve.”

“I am never going to live that down,” Kurt sighed, lifting Corina out of the water and bundling her in a towel. Blaine was about to apologise for suggesting the game in the first place, when Kurt looked up with a smirk. “I suppose it’s a good thing I have so much material that I could embarrass her with in front of Alyssa. Not that I ever would, of course,” he added, catching Blaine’s alarmed expression, “but it’s nice to have the threat.”

The evening quickly descended into chaos from then on.

The girls moaned and rolled around clutching their stomachs whenever things weren’t going their way (“and to think one day they’ll be dealing with periods,” Blaine whispered), Harry ‘accidentally’ threw BeeBee off the balcony after Tyler drank his orange juice by mistake so Blaine had to run out to go find the little rabbit while Kurt distracted Tyler with a poorly rehearsed musical number, and Corina grew tired of being ignored and started crying.

And then she just didn’t stop.

They didn’t know if she was just cranky, or if she was coming down with whatever the other kids had, but after an hour of rising and falling wails, the suite was full of ringing ears. Corina had worked herself up into such a state that she couldn’t calm herself down, her face almost purple as she screamed, and her siblings had lost their patience and were shouting at her to “shut up already you stupid brat” (which earned both Genevieve and Harry a time out).

Kurt bundled the children into his bedroom with his laptop, giving Alyssa control over what DVDs they watched, so he and Blaine could try and focus on calming the baby back down.

Corina was wrapped up in a blanket, pressed close to Blaine’s chest as he hushed her, rocking back and forth on the balls of feet while sending desperate SOS signals to Kurt with his eyes. He was completely out of practice with infants, and even as a baby Tyler had always settled down  within a few minutes.

“She hasn’t cried like this since she was a newborn,” Kurt said, biting the back of his thumb. “And even then she’d cry herself out within twenty minutes, thirty her absolute limit.”

“Okay, there has to be a logical explanation. She’s not hungry, she doesn’t need changing, she’s been burped, her temperature is normal, and you’ve rubbed her gums but it’s not helping so it’s probably not teething pain, and she woke up perfectly happy from her nap a little while ago. Kurt, I don’t want to alarm you, but I think she might have been turned into a demon baby.”

Kurt choked out a laugh, pulling Blaine down to sit beside him on the sofa and taking Corina from him, tucking her tightly against his body. “Can you turn the lights out for me? Maybe she’s overstimulated, or under stimulated, or at the exact right level of stimulation and just trying to punish us for everything we’ve ever done wrong in life, I have no idea anymore. I can’t hear myself think with all this noise, Rina, baby,  _please_  quieten down.”

With the lights off, Blaine returned to Kurt’s side, pressing his lips to the top of Corina’s head. “Shhh little one,” he murmured, “Shh shh shh. It’s okay, you’re going to be okay, we’re here. We’re not going anywhere.” Together, he and Kurt rocked Corina between them, whispering promises, and eventually she calmed down enough to accept her dummy, before finally falling back to sleep on Kurt’s chest.

“One down, four to go.”

Blaine nodded. “Wait here, I’m going to get them to turn the laptop off and settle into bed with  a dose of medicine. The noise might wake Corina otherwise.”

“She’ll need another bottle before they’re asleep, I’ll get it made up while you do that.”

Kurt walked into the bedroom with Corina to find Blaine sat on the end of the bed, with the children tucked under the covers together. “They’re demanding a story.”

“Story!” Tyler echoed, clapping his hands, before staring at Corina. “Baby sleep?”

“Yeah, baby sleeping,” Kurt smiled. “But she needs to have her milk, do you think you could help me feed her?”

Tyler clambered over to sit in Kurt’s lap, Corina balanced between them so that Tyler could hold the bottle as she drank. “Blaine, a’feed a’baby!”

“You’re feeding the baby? That’s clever of you, Tyler. Now then munchkins, what story do we want tonight?”

“A new one,” Harry said.

“A new one,” Blaine repeated. “So not the usual fairy tale then?”

Kurt laughed. “I guess if we’re inventing a new story, the first thing to do is come up with a beginning. And how do the best stories start?”

“Once upon a time!” Genevieve and Harry chorused.

“All right then,” Blaine grinned. “Once upon a time, there was a family of cats. There was a mummy cat, and a daddy cat, and three mischievous little kittens- big brother Glow, his sister Blossom, and the littlest of the kittens, baby Fable. The kittens were under strict orders not to leave the house while mummy and daddy cat were out hunting, but one day they snuck out. Mrs Hedgehog was left in charge of the kittens while their parents were gone, but she fell asleep in her special rocking chair, so Glow led his sisters away.”  
“That’s a very naughty kitten, isn’t it Tyler?” Kurt said as he tucked Tyler back into bed, having given the sleeping Corina to Blaine.

“Naughty!”

“It was very naughty of him,” Blaine nodded. “The kittens packed up their favourite squeaky mouse and a rubber ring, and caught a bus to the seaside. They played on the beach for a long long time, paddling in the shallow water and building sandcastles. While Glow and Blossom swam about in the sea, Fable floated on the rubber ring. After the sun went down, the kittens caught the bus back to their house, having had a very fun day. Only when they get home, they found that all the lights in the house were on. Mummy and Daddy were home. The kittens peered into the living room window, thinking that Mummy and Daddy would be very cross with them. Instead, they saw that Mummy and Daddy were crying, while Mrs Hedgehog pottered around making them cups of warm milk.”

“Oh no!”

“Oh yes, Tyler. You see, Mummy and Daddy thought that the kittens were lost forever, and were very very afraid for them.  When the kittens went inside, they begged their Mummy and Daddy not to be sad any more. ‘We’re home Mama!’ they called, and then they all had a big big hug. ‘Tomorrow,’ Daddy said, ‘We will have a talk about going out without telling Mummy or Daddy where you are going, but tonight we are just happy you are safe.’ The kittens promised to always tell Mrs Hedgehog if they wanted to go out and Mummy and Daddy were not home, and after a saucer of milk they were all tucked up in bed, already dreaming of their next big adventure. And now, my darlings,” Blaine said, “It’s time for you all to dream as well.”

After the children were all asleep, Kurt and Blaine stretched out sideways along the end of the bed, Corina asleep and safe in Kurt’s arms. “It was a good story,” Kurt whispered. “Sleep well, Blaine.”

“Sleep well, Kurt.”

Blaine awoke to find the children gone, the cartoon music blaring loudly from the next room enough to reassure him they weren’t off hitchhiking anywhere. Kurt was still asleep beside him, a soft smile on his face. Corina lay between them, eyes bright as she sucked on Kurt’s forearm, her hands clutching on to Blaine’s t-shirt. She couldn’t have been awake very long, otherwise she’d be crying for her bottle. As Blaine gently eased Kurt’s arm free of Corina’s mouth and slid out of bed, Corina nestled safely in his arms, he couldn’t resist brushing Kurt’s hair back off his forehead. Without his hair swept up, Kurt looked much younger. Blaine could easily imagine him as Genevieve and Harry and Corina’s older brother, despite the obvious difference in skin colour. He had the same softness about him that they did, the same eye shape and curve of his lip that made the children look alike, despite Genevieve not sharing her younger siblings’ birth parents.

“You know, it’s really rude to stare.”

Blaine yelped, staggering backwards and into Corina’s crib. “Sorry, I was just-”

“I’m teasing,” Kurt laughed, “Give me Ree and let me get her fed. You should make sure the kids haven’t killed each other.”

“Right, yeah, rule one of nannying, keep the children alive.”

As Blaine gave the children their breakfast, he became suspicious. The ‘illness’ that had made them all so miserable last night had mysteriously vanished as the sun rose, it seemed. “Hey Tyler, how’s your tummy?”

Tyler froze, eyes flitting between his sister and Blaine before he dropped his hands to his stomach. “Ow,” he whined, unconvincingly.

“Give it up Tyler, he knows,” Genevieve sighed.

“Please tell me you didn’t do what I think you did. Please tell me you did not fake being sick and scare Kurt and me for no reason?

“We had a reason!” Alyssa said quickly. “Kurt was ruining our plans by going on his date, so we pretended to be sick so he’d stay in and you two could fall in love, only Corina got all moody and blew it.”

“Don’t blame the baby, I am very disappointed in you all. You do not pretend to be sick to get your way, it is rude and disrespectful. The next time you get sick, you’ll have to go to school because I’ll think you’re just pretending again. Is that what you want?”

“No,” Alyssa said. “I’m sorry Blaine, we just wanted to help. You won’t tell Kurt, will you?”

Blaine closed his eyes, but nodded. “Just this once I’m going to keep this between us. But girls, I told you to stop this match-making.”

“We know. We’re sorry, we won’t pretend to be sick again,” Genevieve said. As soon as Blaine turned his back, she whispered, “We’ll just come up with something that Corina can’t mess up.”

“I heard that.”

Once the children had been dispatched to entertain themselves, and Corina had been fed, Blaine caught hold of Kurt’s wrist. “Could we talk?”

“Sure,” Kurt said, letting Blaine lead him into the far corner of the room, away from where the girls were reading to the younger children. “What’s up?”

“I was glad. That you didn’t go out with Adam last night.”

“Oh, well, no problem. I mean, if I was faced with a night alone with all of the kids I’d be glad to have someone else too, it was selfish of me to ask you to-”

“No, not because of the kids. You were perfectly fine to ask me to watch them. I was glad because… because I didn’t want you to go on a date, unless it was with me.”

“Blaine-” Kurt said, the word little more than an exhale of breath.

Blaine shook his head, shifting anxiously from foot to foot. “Please, I have to say this. I know that we live so far apart that this isn’t practical, and but I also know that ever since I met you, a part of me that I didn’t even know was missing felt like it had come home. Spending time with you this week, getting to know you, has been so wonderful. Kurt, there is a moment, when you say to yourself-”

 


	8. The Mishap and Confession

“We’re back!” Chloe called as the door opened, causing Tyler to let out a little shriek before sprinting over to her.

“Mummy!”

“Hello darlings, did you miss us? Were they well behaved?”

Kurt took a step back from Blaine, shaking his head slightly. “We can’t do this,” he said softly, “I leave in five days, four, technically, since we leave so early on Tuesday. Please don’t do this.” Before Blaine could say anything further, Kurt turned to Chloe, smile already in place. “They were great! We had a bit of a worry that they might have flu last night, but they seem well enough now. Must have been homesickness presenting with physical symptoms or something.”

Blaine brushed past Kurt as he walked into his room, leaving Michael raising an eyebrow in Kurt’s direction. Ruffling Genevieve’s hair as he stepped around her, he wrapped an arm around Kurt’s shoulders and led him out of the suite. “So what did you do to make Blaine look like that?”

“Look like what?”

Michael just stared, until Kurt sighed and leant back against the wall. “He… we…”

“He told you,” Michael said.

“Told me what?” Kurt asked, before freezing. “Oh god, you know.”

“We _all_ know, you two have been sidestepping around each other since you got here. So what’s holding you back? Your date last night?”

Kurt shook his head. “I didn’t go. We thought the kids were sick.”

Michael fixed Kurt with the same look he gave Harry whenever he tried to lie about who ate the last bar of candy despite it being Genevieve’s turn. Harry had only ever held out for a few seconds. Kurt managed a little over fifteen.

“Okay, it wasn’t because the kids were sick. I’d been trying to think of an excuse to get out of the date the whole day anyway, I should never have agreed to go.”

“Because…?”

“Because Blaine’s really cute, and funny, and _smart,_ and he’s so fantastic with the kids and I am so completely gone over him which I can’t be because this can’t happen.”

Michael led Kurt into his and Oscar’s bedroom and sat him on the bed, before kneeling on the floor opposite him. “Kurt, I want you to listen to me. The only thing stopping you and Blaine from giving things a shot is you. If you really want to try, the distance won’t matter. Ozz and I spent four years on different continents until we could be together properly, and the distance only strengthened us, because we had to have complete trust in one another. Nobody is saying you have to _marry_ the guy, or even be in a relationship while you’re apart. You could be completely platonic friends, and I don’t think giving dating him a shot would damage that. But you also don’t have to do anything. If you want to continue as you are, tell him. From what Eddie has said, he’s a good guy. He’ll understand.”

“You’re not helping,” Kurt groaned.

“Take some time to think today,” Michael advised as he stood back up, holding out a hand to help Kurt up. “We’re taking the kids out, so you’ll have plenty of time to spend doing whatever you’d like. My Mum and Dad are coming down for dinner tonight, and we need you and Blaine to come with us to keep an eye on them while Ed and I explain to our parents where our lives are going and all that fun stuff. As a thank you, not only do you get to have dinner in a very fancy high class restaurant, but you get an outfit designed specifically for you-”

“I wondered why you insisted on ‘checking the fit of my clothes’ a few weeks ago.”

“And you are child free until 5:30, when we may have to call you in to take Corina while we convince Gen and Harry that nice clothes won’t burn their skin off if they put them on.”

“I still don’t get how a fashion designer and his lawyer husband managed to raise such stubbornly fashion phobic children. Surely if anything they should be stubborn _towards_ fashion?”

“I blame Oscar, they get their stubbornness entirely from watching him,” Michael shrugged, before grinning and pulling Kurt into a hug. “And you. I know we don’t say it often enough, but you have no idea how grateful Ozzy and I are for you. You make the kids so happy, Kurt. I don’t know how we ever managed before you arrived. You’re just as much their family as we are, I hope you know that. No matter what happens, however long you decide to spend with us, you will always be a part of our family.”

“Don’t make me cry,” Kurt said weakly, burying his face in Michael’s shoulder for a moment before pulling back. “You have no idea how much I love being a part of your family. Now go see your kids, Harry drew some new pictures he wanted to show you.”

Once Michael and Kurt returned to the suite, they found the children dressed and ready to go. Blaine, however, was nowhere in sight.

Chloe caught Kurt looking around and took pity. “We told him we’d get the kids dressed, so he’s gone to have a shower. Poor boy looked like he needed a break, I think they’ve finally cracked him. He’s never looked so… well, not like himself before.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s probably just tired,” Michael cut in, clapping Kurt on the back before whispering, “Don’t worry, he’ll bounce back no matter what you decide.” After a round of goodbye kisses, the children had left with their parents, and Kurt was stuck floundering in the living room waiting for Blaine to appear, or not appear, or maybe for someone to come tell him what to do because he just didn’t _know_.

His thoughts were interrupted by the bathroom door opening, and Blaine emerging with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Water trickled down from his hair, droplets running along his collarbone and travelling down to the v of his hips, and- and Kurt was staring. He should not be staring. Mixed messages. Eyes flying back up to Blaine’s face, Kurt was surprised to find Blaine blushing, staring resolutely ahead. “I forgot to take in new clothes.”

“Right, of course. They, they left with the kids.”

“I heard them leave. Free for a few hours, huh? You decided how you’re going to spend them?” Blaine’s voice was flat, giving nothing away.

“I don’t know, might have a look at the pool later.”

Blaine nodded. “I’m going to the gym, I guess I’ll see you around.” He walked into his room, closing the door behind him before Kurt could reply.

Kurt hovered awkwardly outside Blaine’s door for several long moments before shaking his head and going into the bathroom himself. He contemplated jerking off- sharing a bed with a baby meant all intimate moments had to occur in the bathroom on the rare occasion he had time to himself- but he knew exactly where his mind would wander to. Especially now he knew how Blaine looked wet and naked. It wasn’t much of a stretch to impose Blaine’s nude physique on a memory of Blaine kneeling beside the sofa cleaning Tyler’s toys up, and picturing himself on the sofa, Blaine’s hands running up his thighs as he tangled his own fingers in Blaine’s hair (curls, how had he not known about the _curls_ )...

Kurt scowled at his reflection as he stripped. “I will not masturbate to thoughts of Blaine Anderson,” he said aloud, before burying his face in his hands and contemplating exactly how thin the bathroom walls were.

Kurt turned the water as hot as he could stand it, and stood silently beneath the shower head hoping that the heat would trigger some form of epiphany about what he should do. Instead he wound up with a thumping headache from the rush of blood to his head caused by the heat, and he managed to trip over the mat on the floor as he stepped out of the shower and hit his head on the towel rail. Hissing every curse he could remember under his breath, Kurt tried in vain to examine the side of his head in the steamed up mirror.

There was a knock at the door. “Um, Kurt? You okay? I heard a crash. Was it just a shampoo bottle falling or do I need to call 999?”

“I’m fine, I just slipped!” Kurt called, fumbling for one of the spare towels. The only one he could find was a hand towel, not long enough to wrap around himself.

“Are you bleeding?”

“No, no, I- ow!” Kurt dropped the hand he’d been running through his hair, wincing.

The doorknob jiggled. “Let me in.”

“Blaine, I’m fine, I told you.”

“I’d feel a lot better if I could see that for myself. Unlock the door, I don’t want to find out you passed out and I just left you.” Another knock. “Kurt, come on. If you heard me fall, would you let me get away with not opening the door?”

Kurt sighed. “No, but I’m naked and you took the last proper towel.”

“Nothing I haven’t seen before!” Blaine pointed out. Kurt stayed silent, and Blaine seemed to reconsider. “Look, open the door and I’ll pass you the towel. Then you can cover yourself and let me in.”

It took a great deal of pride swallowing, but Kurt undid the lock on the door and poked a hand out to grab the towel. Once he was suitably covered, he knocked the door the rest of the way open with his foot. “Not a word of this to anyone,” he warned. Blaine nodded immediately, scrambling inside and dropping onto the floor next to Kurt. He’d changed into a pair of dark grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt, clearly on his way out to the gym when he’d heard Kurt fall. His hair was still curly. As glossy as a bunch of black grapes.

How hard had Kurt hit his head again?

“Okay let’s take a look at you, where did you get hurt?”

“I hit my head, on the towel rail.”

Blaine leant forward, gently pressing Kurt’s head forward so he could run his fingers through his wet hair. It didn’t take long for Kurt to pull away, as Blaine’s fingers collided with a sizeable bump on the side of his head. Blaine held his hand up, showing Kurt the blood on his fingertips. “I thought you said you weren’t bleeding?”

“I didn’t think I was!”

Tutting, Blaine stood up. “I’m going to get a first aid kit from my bag, you don’t move a muscle.”

“Can I get some pants?”

Blaine pointed a finger at Kurt, before flapping both hands in the air in frustration. “Just stay put, okay?”

Kurt wrapped the towel tighter around himself as he waited for Blaine’s return, shivering a little as the breeze from the open balcony door blew into the bathroom and chilled the water droplets on his skin. At least Blaine came back quickly, handing Kurt a pair of briefs and some sweatpants that most definitely hadn’t come from his own suitcase. Catching Kurt’s look, Blaine shrugged. “I didn’t want to go through your stuff, so I just grabbed some of mine. Don’t wear them if it bothers you.”

Kurt shook his head, staring pointedly at Blaine until the other man blinked. “Oh right, you want me to leave so you can..?”

“Not accidentally flash you as I get dressed? Yes please. Or at least turn around, I don’t like people seeing me naked.”

Blaine’s eyes flickered over Kurt’s bare torso, his tongue slipping out to lick over his lips before he seemed to come back to himself. “Turning!” He said quickly, spinning on his heel and staring resolutely at the tiled wall. “If it’s any help, you look good naked. Like, really good.”

Muffling a laugh in the crook of his elbow as he wriggled into the briefs and pants, Kurt willed the blood in his cheeks to go somewhere else. Anywhere else. Okay, crap, maybe not _anywhere_ else.

“Can I turn?”

Kurt dropped the towel into his lap, hoping he wasn’t being too obvious. “Mhmm, we’re good. Clothes are on, but my head is throbbing and I have blood in my eyes so if we could make this fast-”

“Absolutely, let me just- ouch,” Blaine hissed as he turned back around, sitting cross legged beside Kurt and running his thumb over the blood trickling down Kurt’s forehead. “Poor boy. Let’s get that bleeding stopped and then I’ll ask Master Google whether I’m going to have to run you to the hospital.”

“Please don’t, I’m not a UK resident so I don’t exactly qualify for NHS care. I can’t afford any medical bills right now.”

“Don’t Michael and Oscar pay? I have a whole clause in my contract that any medical bills that I don’t get funding for will be covered by my employers. Likewise any courses I take relating to childcare or first aid, all family trips... ”

“Well, yeah,” Kurt sighed, tilting his head back so Blaine could run an antiseptic wipe along his hairline. “But I’d feel so guilty presenting them with a bill. I’ve had to before, but only when the kids have caused an injury. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wound up in the emergency room with a stroller and grumpy children, either for them or because of them, but for something like this? I mean, this isn’t even on their time, I am responsible for zero children right now. I can’t qualify this as something they should be paying for.”

“They love you, and they are willing to pay. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Blaine said, pressing gauze to the cut on Kurt’s scalp. “Hold this here for me? I need my laptop.”

Once Blaine was back and gingerly balancing his laptop on his knees, Kurt untucked his legs from where he’d been sitting on them, pressing his toes into the curve of Blaine’s feet. Blaine squeaked. “Your feet are freezing!”

“I know,” Kurt grinned. “Can I move my hand yet?”

“Have you stopped bleeding?”

“No.”

“Then you have your answer, don't you? You _can_ help me answer the nice NHS symptom checker questions, though. So, what do you need help with? You have symptoms that are concerning you…”

“I’m really not that bothered, it’s a bit of blood.”

“Well there isn’t a ‘symptoms bothering the nice man trying to keep me from dying’ option, so hush. Area of concern is the head and neck… head injury… enquiring about someone else who is definitely a legal resident of the UK blah blah blah, date of birth…”

“You know my date of birth?”

“Mmm? You told me when we went for coffee. Seen by a healthcare professional, no. On to the good stuff! Kurt Hummel, are you suffering from confusion, drowsiness, trouble speaking or fits?”

“Obviously not.”

Blaine kicked Kurt’s leg. “Don’t be smart with me, I’m trying to help. Any of these… nope, ear or eye symptoms, no, was the cause of the injury a large force such as being hit by a vehicle or falling from a great height? Not unless you managed to fit a car in the bathroom and make it vanish, bleeding from scalp or face, yes. Does your skin feel warm or cold?”

“What?”

Blaine took Kurt’s free hand and lay it on his arm. “Warm or cold? It’s to check you aren’t shock.”

“My skin feels warm.”

“Congratulations, you don’t seem to be in shock! I’ll give you a sticker later. Will the wound not stop bleeding or is it particularly deep?”

Kurt dropped the gauze and presented his head for inspection. “Well?”

“No more bleeding, you’re in the clear. Any other symptoms… nope, squishy head bits or indents, also a nope- which means no fractured skull, so that makes two stickers!”

“I will kick you.”

“At least you’re feeling well enough to complain. You have a pretty big bump but apparently that’s normal, there are some painkillers in the first aid kit you can take for that in a minute. Have you vomited since the injury?”

“No.”

“Awesome! Risk factors, no, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, not unless you’re hiding vodka in your shampoo bottle, did it happen in the last forty-eight hours, yes! Right, and the results. Are you ready?”

Kurt rolled his eyes, stretching out across the bathroom floor with a sigh. “Hit me.”

“Well you don’t need to go to A&E unless you develop new symptoms, which I have a nice shiny list of. You can only take paracetamol for pain relief, which I have so we’re all good there… No alcohol for three days, no sleeping tablets, cold compresses may help, and you’re meant to sit _quietly_ for the first two hours after injury. You need to be closely monitored for the next forty-eight hours, unless you want to go to hospital, so I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”

“Yippee.”

“Blah blah blah, avoid strenuous activity, no contact sports for three weeks, and you have to be woken every two hours while sleeping to make sure you respond normally.”

“Please tell me that last one was a joke. I have a _baby_ , Blaine, I can’t be woken up in the times between _her_ being awake. I mean, that stuff is all just guidelines, right?”

Blaine hesitated. “I don’t want you to develop any new symptoms and have me not notice. We’ll sort that out tonight, maybe Michael and Oscar could take Corina. Right now I think we’ll just get you a shirt, and I’ll help you wash the blood out of your hair so you don’t reopen the cut. Then some nice drugs, an ice pack if you want it, and we’ll do something quiet for an hour or so.”

“And what if I don’t want your help? I’m an adult, Blaine, I don’t need a babysitter, no matter what that stupid website says.” Kurt regretted snapping almost immediately. He could see Blaine shutting down, the light in his eyes and jokey atmosphere giving way to tense silence and closed off body language. Kurt took Blaine’s hand in his. “I’m sorry,” he said, softer. “You’re being kind, I shouldn’t be cross with you. Thank you for helping me. I guess Gen and Harry aren’t the only bad patients around here.”

“I won’t bring up earlier,” Blaine promised. “It’s like it never happened, honestly. It’s obviously not what you… I read the situation wrong, and I’m sorry. Just please let me help you now. I don’t want the rest of the week to be spent in awkward silences.”

Kurt hesitated, and then nodded slowly. There was no sense in trying to explain to Blaine that he hadn’t read anything wrong, or that he hadn’t actually made a decision yet. He’d just be giving him false hope. “Sure. You can still go to the gym, I can just sit and watch you, take a book or something. Although I think the only books I have with me are the ones I packed for the kids.”

“I brought a few, you can see if there are any you want in a minute.”

Having someone else washing his hair, Kurt soon realised, wasn’t quite the same experience as back when he was a child. Blaine was incredibly gentle as he rinsed out the blood, but due to the layout of the bathroom and the location of the cut, a little trial and error found that Kurt bent backwards over the sink with Blaine essentially straddling him in order to reach the taps was the only way they were going get anything done.

“Well,” Blaine finally said, drying his hands and backing up to let Kurt stand. “I think it’s time to grab you a shirt and some painkillers, and then we’ll go find that book.”

It transpired that Blaine’s book collection was made up of crime thrillers, a couple of romances that he tried to hide under his socks, and a lot of textbooks. Kurt flicked through one of the crime books, but his attention kept being drawn back to the pile of textbooks that Tyler had turned into a fort for his toys. Blaine followed his gaze and shifted awkwardly on the balls of his feet. “I like to study.”

“You’re a nerd,” Kurt said, delighted. “That is adorable. What do you study?”

“This and that. I’ve been trying to decide what I want to do when the kids no longer need me, so I’ve been dabbling to see what I might want to study.”

 “And?”

“I’m still not sure. Alyssa keeps stealing my biology textbooks and getting me to explain things to her, and Tyler uses them like Legos whenever I’m not paying attention. I don’t really get any downtime to focus.”

“I know that feeling. Well, let’s go take a look at this gym.”

“Did you pick a book?”

“No, I think I’ll just take some of Harry’s clothes up and mend them, he’s a nightmare for falling over and ripping seams. My sewing kit is somewhere in my suitcase still, I’ll find it and follow you down.”  Blaine hesitated, but Kurt stood his ground. “I’ll be five minutes, ten tops. Off you go, Anderson.”

Despite Kurt’s initial misgivings, a day spent in the gym with Blaine turned out to be one of the most fun days he’d ever had. For the first hour Blaine was insistent that Kurt stayed sitting, but Kurt managed to work through a pile of Harry’s clothes, and Blaine was only doing some light warm ups as they talked, so it passed quickly. After the hour was up Kurt tried out a few stations, but his attention was constantly being drawn back to Blaine in the corner at a punching bag. Eventually Blaine noticed and pulled Kurt over to hang out with him, alternating between teaching him actual techniques and goofing off trying to make him laugh.  It was a far cry from the boring hours Kurt occasionally spent in the gym back home, and the fact Blaine lost his shirt after they returned from lunch was definitely a bonus.

By the time the men returned to the suite, the Prescotts were back with the children and trying to sweet talk the girls into their dresses while Oscar appeared to be trying to scowl Harry’s hair into submission. Michael looked up as they walked in together and smirked, nudging his husband and brother, who in turn tapped Chloe, before the four of them started giggling. “Had a good day boys?” Chloe asked.

“Don’t start,” Blaine replied, brushing past her and scooping Tyler up. “Right then little man, let’s get you into your nice new clothes hmm?”

It took a little under an hour to get everyone dressed and ready to go, but eventually they were all in the elevator on their way down to dinner with the Prescott elders. Kurt kept sneaking little looks at Blaine when the other man wasn’t looking, which didn’t go unnoticed by Michael, who kept winking at him. “Stop it,” Kurt finally hissed as they walked towards the restaurant, Blaine at the head of the group with the girls while Kurt was at the back with Michael and Ed.

“You _love_ him,” Michael teased.

“No I _don’t_!”

“Oh please, you’re in luuuurve,” Ed snorted. “Kurt and Blaine, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-”

“Will you both please stop? I am not in love with Blaine!”

“Kurt a’B’aine?”

The men froze. Tyler had ducked back from where he’d been skipping alongside Oscar and Harry, and was beaming up them.

“No, Tyler no!” Kurt said frantically, but it was too late. Tyler took off running, reaching Blaine and taking his hand and tugging hard. “Now look what you’ve done!”

Edward and Michael both stared at their shoes guiltily. “It’s your fault,” Michael whispered.

“Nuh huh, you started it!”

“Boys!” Kurt snapped. “I don’t care who started it, you are grown men, and I expect you to start acting your ages right this minute. You are showing yourselves up, as well as me, and I will not stand for this childish behaviour any longer, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Kurt,” they chorused, before Michael began to giggle. “I can see why Genevieve actually listens to you, you’re scary when you get mad.”

“I’ll be even scarier when we aren’t about to go see your parents, because my life is now over and it is entirely your fault.”

“Your life is over?”

Kurt groaned, burying his face in his hands as Blaine fell into place beside him, Tyler with him. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”

“We’ll go on ahead with the kids, you two catch up whenever you’re ready,” Ed said, picking Tyler up.

Kurt waited until they had joined the rest of the group and were several feet ahead, before pulling Blaine aside. “What did Tyler say?”

“Oh the usual, something something Mr Tumble, something about Rina, and then he said you were in love with me, which isn’t what he normally says but you know how kids are.” Blaine spoke with a certain kind of nonchalance, but the way his hands had clenched into fists by his side belied his nervousness. “I mean I’d just ignore it otherwise, but after you freaked out this morning I figured we needed a chat because you’re sending me some pretty weird signals right now.”

“I’m sorry, I really am. For the record, it’s completely Michael and Edward’s fault, they were teasing me and-”

“What were they teasing you about?”

Kurt pressed his fingers into his temple. “Um, I might have been staring you at a little bit.”

“You were staring at me?”

“You don’t have to sound so pleased about it, but yeah. You look really nice tonight. I mean, not that you don’t look nice normally because you do, you’re very attractive just generally what with your face and all, but tonight you just look… wow.” Kurt gestured at Blaine’s torso, the dark suit so carefully tailored to his slim waist and broad shoulders.

“I look wow,” Blaine echoed, the grin on his face threatening to split him into two. “Well, thank you. For the record, you look wow too.”

Kurt fiddled with the sleeves of his shirt, adjusted the dark purple waistcoat Michael had had made for him. “Thanks. Sorry for the word vomit, I swear I’m normally a very articulate person.”

“I don’t mind. I actually think it’s pretty cute.”

Letting out a groan, Kurt went to run his fingers through his hair before second guessing himself and dropping his hands to his sides. “About the weird signals. I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said this morning, and props to what sounded like it was going to be a fantastic speech, by the way, and I was wrong to just say no outright like that. And I’m not in love with you, no matter what Ty might have said, I’ve only known you for a few days after all. But I do know that I could very easily fall for you. And so long as you promise that if this doesn’t work we won’t get weird, that I get to keep my new friend, I would really love to go out with you.”

“YES!”

Blaine and Kurt span around  to find Alyssa and Genevieve peeking at them from around a corner, pumping their fists into the air.

“What are you doing here?” Blaine asked.

“Mummy sent us to get you,” Alyssa said.

“And instead of getting us you decided to spy on our conversation?”

“We couldn’t interrupt, you were finally getting somewhere! Now say you want to go out with Kurt too and then kiss and then we need to go tell everyone, and then-”

“No no no, no telling anyone, not yet,” Blaine said. “Let us work things out for ourselves first, and then when we’re ready we’ll tell people. Okay?”

Alyssa and Genevieve sighed but nodded. “Fine, be boring, _but_ you have to let us go on your first date to make sure you guys don’t screw anything up. Come on, Granny Ethel wants to see you both.”

“We’ll be right there,” Kurt promised. Once the girls had left, he turned back to Blaine, stupidly shy all of a sudden.

Blaine tangled his fingers with Kurt’s and squeezed. “For the record, I think this is going to be pretty great.”

“Definitely. But for now, we need to convince the girls that chaperoning us won’t be necessary.”

“Actually, for now we need to get into the restaurant before everyone gets even more suspicious,” Blaine laughed. “I’m pretty sure Chloe has a bet running, and we don’t want to tip them off.”

They walked hand in hand to the restaurant, knocking shoulders every few steps and shooting one another shy grins, only dropping their hands once they finally reached the door. Through the window they could see the table the Prescotts were sat at, and as Blaine pushed the door open and gestured for Kurt to go inside, Tyler looked up and spotted them, waving frantically. The men waved back.

“Ten bucks says Tyler knocks over a bottle of expensive wine before the meal is over,” Kurt murmured.

“You have so little faith in my boy,” Blaine protested as he took his seat, nodding politely at Ethel and Cyril who were smiling at them knowingly.

It turned out it only took Tyler fifteen minutes, but Kurt lost the bet on a technicality.

After all, a bottle of wine worth thirty pounds wasn’t quite comparable to a bottle of champagne worth over five hundred.

 


	9. The Pre-First Date

When Blaine had pictured his first date with Kurt, he’d imagined a romantic dinner. There’d be candles, blushing over held hands and dessert… maybe even a late night coffee in Kurt’s bedroom because they didn’t want the night to end.

 An outing to see _Matilda the Musical_ with their three older charges definitely hadn’t been in the plan. In fact, having no children around had been a rather key aspect in having a successful first date. At least Kurt didn’t seem that put off.

“We have the weekend to spend doing things together while the kids are out of town, taking them to see a show isn’t the worst first date in the world. Besides,” Kurt paused and threw another shirt onto his reject pile, while Blaine sat cross-legged on the bed and ‘watched’ Tyler and Corina, “I thought we agreed this isn’t really a  _date_ date. It’s just something to get Genevieve and Lyss off our backs.”

“If this isn’t a real date, why are you worrying so much about what to wear?”

Kurt turned and glared at Blaine, hands on his hips. “Don’t you dare think that just because you’re holding a baby, I won’t wipe that smug grin off of your face, Blaine Devon Anderson.”

“I can’t believe Lyssie told you my middle name, that’s mutiny.”

“Mut-nee?” Tyler asked, carefully crawling onto the bed to sit beside Blaine, abandoning his trains on the floor.

“Yes sweetie, mutiny. When naughty children tell tales and don’t behave, they’re being mutinous,” Kurt explained, holding a pair of jeans against himself. “You’re not going to be mutinous though, are you poppet? You’re going to be a very good boy for your mummy and daddy tonight, because tonight you get to share a bed with them!”

“A’Rina?”

“Rina’s sharing with  _her_ daddies, lucky girl, because Blainey and I are going to take your sister and cousins out for the night so  _you_  get some quality time with your parents. Hopefully the others will get to run around and exhaust themselves before the car ride to your cousin Lucy’s party tomorrow.”

Tyler furrowed his brow. “Lucy?”

“Ty hasn’t met Lucy yet,” Blaine said absently. His attention had been zapped as soon as Kurt had stripped out of his regular jeans and wriggled into the lilac skinny ones he’d been examining a few moments earlier, and started twisting and turning to check the fit in the mirror.

Tyler pressed a sticky hand to Blaine’s cheek, blowing a raspberry against the skin of Blaine’s neck. “Blainey, ‘tention!”

“I am paying attention!” Blaine protested, but Tyler shook his head, folding his arms crossly.

“Not! Blainey starin’.”

Kurt laughed as Blaine blushed, ducking his head. “Not staring,” Blaine muttered darkly, knowing full well that he sounded like Alyssa seconds before a diva moment. Before Kurt and Tyler could contest, the door to Kurt’s room flew open and Genevieve stormed inside, dragging Harry behind her while Alyssa followed, looking nervous.

“Gen,” she started, but Genevieve was having none of it, glaring at Alyssa until she fell silent and then turning her attention to Kurt.

“Why is  _Harry_  coming with us?” Genevieve spat. “That wasn’t part of the deal! Make him stay here, he’ll ruin everything. He always always always does!”

“I didn’t want to go anyway!” Harry shouted, wrenching his arm from his sister’s grasp and running out of the room.

“Oh god,” Kurt said, staring after Harry in shock. “Gen, how could you say such a mean thing? Of course Harry’s coming with us, he’s your brother!”

“And Corina’s my sister, but she isn’t coming is she?”

Blaine stood, setting Corina in her crib. “I assume you want to have this particular chat with Genevieve in private? I’ll go talk to Harry, smooth things over. Alyssa honey, can you take Tyler into our bedroom and help him pack some toys to take with him to Mummy and Daddy’s suite tonight? Keep him out of trouble for me?”

“Of course,” Alyssa said, holding her arms out to Tyler. “Come on, let’s go have a look through those toys. I  _might_ even have some chocolate buttons I saved for you from when I went to the sweet shop with Gen.”

Blaine closed the door behind them just as Kurt said, “See, Alyssa is nice to  _her_ brother.”

Alyssa giggled nervously. “I think Genevieve’s going to be in big trouble.”

“I think so too. Where do you think Harry will have gone?”

“His bedroom,” Alyssa said, looking at Blaine as though he were just a little bit stupid. “Good luck, Gen says when Harry sulks he doesn’t talk to anyone for  _days_.”

Blaine made sure the children were in his bedroom before he knocked on Harry’s door. “Anyone home?” There was no reply, but Blaine poked his head around the door anyway and winced. Harry was wrapped up in as many blankets as he could fit around him, eyes streaming as he wiped his nose on his sleeve. “You shouldn’t do that you know.”

He sat on the floor beside Harry, pulling the pile of blankets that he was using as a cocoon onto his lap and cuddling him. Harry resisted at first, shrinking away, and then he pressed his face into Blaine’s chest and sobbed. “Why do they  _-hic-_  hate me?” He asked between sobs.

“Gen and Lyss? They don’t hate you sweetheart, nobody hates you.”

“ _No_ ,” Harry said fiercely, “Gen and  _Kurt_.”

“Kurt? Harry, Kurt does not hate you. He loves you, just like he loves Genevieve and Corina.”

Harry shook his head, a tiny crease appearing between his eyebrows. “He loves them more than me. He always takes their sides and he doesn’t get mad at them like he does me and I don’t want him to not like me and I try really hard to make him like me but-”

“Take a breath!” Blaine said, alarmed. “And then tell me slowly how you could possibly think that Kurt loves the girls any more than he loves you.”

“He spends more time with them. He’s always with Corina, and I know it’s because she’s a baby but sometimes he promises to read me a story and then he  _doesn’t_ and it’s because one of them gets his attention!”

“So Kurt doesn’t do anything with you?”

“Well… no, not exactly,” Harry said, chewing on his bottom lip. “It’s just different. He spends lots of time just sitting with them, but when he’s with me all he wants to do is play games or run around and sometimes I just want to sit and have a cuddle too!”

Blaine turned his head into his own shoulder, biting back a laugh as he shushed Harry. “Now then, you listen to me. I’ll bet you that Kurt doesn’t know that’s what you want. I think he runs and plays games with you more than he does the girls because he thinks that’s what  _you_ want to do. Have you ever told him?”

“He’s always busy. Too busy to talk to me.”

“Come with me now,” Blaine decided. “Come tell Kurt exactly what you just told me, and I promise we’ll make it better. I’ll take Corina and Tyler in to see the grown-ups and get Alyssa and Gen to help me so you two can have a proper talk, just the two of you.”

Harry rubbed his eyes. “Just me and him?”

“Just you and him.”

When Blaine returned to the suite with Alyssa and Genevieve, having given Tyler and Corina a kiss goodnight and wished the Prescott parents luck, Kurt and Harry were sat together on the sofa, Harry curled into Kurt’s side as Kurt read him a story from one of his big dinosaur books. Kurt glanced up when they entered and smiled in acknowledgement, but his attention remained focused on Harry. Genevieve immediately tried to get his attention, but Kurt raised a hand. “Not now Gen, I’m having some time with Harry. We’ll spend time together later.”

Blaine busied the girls with finding their coats and printing the directions to the theatre, and finally Harry went running past him to get his shoes. Kurt hooked his chin over Blaine’s shoulder, slipping his arms around his waist in a gesture so incredibly intimate (given how Kurt usually liked to maintain his personal space) that Blaine had to turn his head to triple check it really was Kurt behind him. “Thank you,” Kurt said. “Whatever you said to him, thank you. I had no idea he was so upset. Had no idea I wasn’t paying attention to him.”

“You were paying attention, just not the kind he wanted,” Blaine corrected. “Now go finish getting changed, you can’t leave this gorgeous outfit half done.”

Kurt sighed but pulled back. “Fine, fine. Let’s get this fake date on the road.”

“It’s not a fake date! It’s a bizarrely chaperoned first date.”

“I refuse to agree to a first date with children in attendance.”

“Pre-first date.”

Kurt rolled his eyes but nodded. “Fine. We’re going on a pre-first date. With three children. This can’t end well.”

“This is going to be fantastic,” Blaine insisted. “How many couples do you know with that great a first date, sorry,  _pre-first date_ story?”

“You’re so sure this is going to end with us being a couple.”

“I most certainly am.”

* * *

 

“Remind me, why exactly did we think taking three troublemakers to a musical about children rebelling against authority was a good idea?” Kurt asked, trying in vain to get Harry off the wall he was just barely balancing on.

“Actually, the musical was about not being afraid to speak up and fight back against adults who aren’t respectful or aren’t very nice people. You have nothing to worry about,” Genevieve said, in her most Hermione Granger-esque voice.

Alyssa shook her head, crossing her arms as she prepared for a fight. “Well  _I_ thought it was about the importance of giving people who aren’t normally listened to a chance to make themselves heard, like Miss Honey’s struggle to argue despite being a grown-up, and the contrast between what the children thinks will make them adults and what the adults themselves see as being properly mature. Like how Mrs Wormwood is obsessed with her dancing and her telly even though she  _should_ be more concerned with how her children are getting on. So she’s not the kind of grown-up most kids want to be like, but then sometimes adults want to focus on hobbies and it doesn’t make them bad people, until they forget to take care of their children.”

“So all it takes to get you to start thinking critically about something is music and your cousin? Well I wish I’d known that when we were trying to do your Victorians project, we could have just watched a few Horrible Histories episodes with Gen on Skype for you to bounce ideas off of,” Blaine said, taking Alyssa’s hand and making her twirl around as they walked.

“Blaine, I’m getting dizzy!” Alyssa giggled, pulling her hand away. “I’ll be sick!”

Blaine threw his hands up in horror, running behind Kurt and pretending to hide, holding up the edges of Kurt’s jacket. Alyssa laughed even harder, while Kurt reached behind him and tugged Blaine in front of him. “Don’t you dare use me as a vomit shield,” he warned, but he took one of Blaine’s hands in his and squeezed, the two of them exchanging shy smiles.

“I just liked the bit with the Bruce song!” Harry called, coming to a stop at the end of the wall. “Kurt, catch me!” Kurt just barely broke away from Blaine in time. Harry jumped into Kurt’s arms, and then to the ground, grinning. “That was an  _awesome_ night out, can we do it again? I like it when Wee-Wee isn’t here”

“Harry.”

“Corina, I meant Corina. Can we?  _Please?_ ”

“Oh yes, can we?” Genevieve and Alyssa chorused. “Tomorrow?”

Blaine shook his head. “You’re leaving for Lucy’s tomorrow, remember? You’ll be gone all weekend. The next time we visit we’ll all go together though, I promise.”

“In another two years,” Genevieve said bitterly. “Why do we have to live so far away?”

Kurt glanced at Blaine, and they exchanged nods. Time to implement a distraction, a Genevieve sulk wasn’t a fun experience. “It won’t be two years, Kurt and I will make sure of it,” Blaine promised. “Now, since you’ve been so good, how about you three decide what we do on Monday? It’ll be our last full day together, so it needs to be something extra special.”

“Oh yes, lets!” Alyssa said, eyes shining. She linked arms with Genevieve, and then held out her other hand for Harry. “Come on Harry, you help us pick.”

Genevieve pulled a face but nodded when Harry hesitated, allowing her brother to join them. They ran ahead, arm in arm, chatting excitedly. They were maybe being just a little too loud, but it was getting towards 11pm. All three had special permission from their parents to be up late to see the show, but the men knew that they needed to get them back to the hotel and into their respective beds as soon as humanly possible to reduce crankiness levels the following morning.

With the children safely ahead, Blaine took Kurt’s hand once more. “How’s your head today?”

“It’s fine, stop  _fussing_ ,” Kurt said, exasperated. “I promise if at any point I feel my head might implode I will tell you, but I’m positively peachy. You don’t need to wake me up every two hours tonight to check I’m still breathing.  _Again._ ”

“I was worried!”

“Well stop worrying and start planning how you want to spend the weekend. What are we doing with the kids tonight? I don’t want the girls to go into their suite and wake everyone up.”

“We can put them in my room,” Blaine shrugged. “I’ll take the sofa.”

Kurt frowned. “That’s not fair. You can share with me, we’re both adults.” He stared straight ahead as he spoke, but Blaine could see the blush blooming high on his cheeks and turning the tips of his ears pink.

“Ku-uurt,” Harry called, trailing back towards the two of them. “Can we go home now?”

“Of course we can. Where are the girls?” Kurt asked, kneeling next to Harry. “You want a piggyback?” Harry raised his arms, sucking his lips into his mouth as if he’d tasted something sour, like Tyler did when he was ready for Blaine to carry him but didn’t want to admit to being tired. For boys who weren’t really related to one another, they certainly had the same mannerisms. Blaine made a note to look it up in one of his textbooks later.

“Viv and ‘sa are o’er there,” Harry said, the ‘over’ catching on a yawn as his words slurred together. He climbed onto Kurt’s back and locked his legs around his waist. “Home.”

“We’re going. You all set up there?”

“Mhmm,” Harry mumbled into Kurt’s hair.

“Alyssa, Genevieve, come back please! We need to go home, it’s way past your bedtimes and you’re up early tomorrow,” Blaine shouted. The girls were just barely visible under a street light at the end of the road, silhouetted in the bright light, but they obediently turned and ran back towards them. Once they reached Blaine, Alyssa started batting her eyelashes until Blaine groaned but picked her up, letting her climb across his torso to sit happily against his back, arms neatly linked around Blaine’s neck. “Don’t strangle me.”

Genevieve pouted. “That’s not fair! How come they get to be carried?”

“Alyssa and Harry are both younger than you.”

“Alyssa’s not  _that_ much younger,” Genevieve sniffed.

“Oh for god’s sake Gen, have a heart,” Kurt pleaded. “I’m already carrying your brother and he's out of it, you’re conscious enough to walk!”

Genevieve turned to Blaine hopefully. “Honey don’t look at me like that,” Blaine pleaded. She batted her eyelashes just like Alyssa had, amping it up with watery eyes and her hands thrown up in a prayer position.

“You’re done for,” Kurt chuckled. “I’ve had years to become immune.”

And that was how Blaine Anderson found himself carrying two young girls all the way back to the hotel, with Kurt walking as close to him as he could, ready to catch either girl if Blaine managed to drop them.

Once the girls were deposited in Blaine’s bed, Blaine changed into pyjama bottoms (no top, it was far too hot for that, he reasoned) in the bathroom and then went in search of Kurt. He could hear him talking quietly, and sure enough, Kurt was in Harry’s room, tucking Harry’s many dinosaur toys in around the sleepy child. Blaine hovered in the doorway, watching as Harry suddenly reached up and pulled Kurt down into a hug. “I love you, Kurt,” he whispered.

“I love you too,” Kurt whispered back, sounding stunned.

When he left the room and saw Blaine stood a few feet away, he smiled, running a hand through his hair with a sigh. “He’s never said that before, not without someone prompting him,” he explained quietly. “Come on then. Let’s go to bed.”

They lay facing one another on the bed, covers kicked onto the floor in frustration with the heat. Kurt traced a finger along Blaine’s cheekbones, and then down along his jaw. Tiredness apparently made him touchy feely, and Blaine certainly wasn’t complaining. “So,” he murmured.

“So,” Kurt echoed.

“For a not first date, how was it?”

“It was the best not first date I’ve ever had,” Kurt said, dropping his hand back to the mattress and turning onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. He didn’t try to hide the goofy smile on his face. Blaine didn’t either. “I can’t wait to see what we do on our first  _actual_ date.”

 

 


End file.
